Behind the Scene and In Between
by Eden Alice Poe
Summary: Taking directly from where "Go!" left off, we will see exactly how our favorite Titans have interacted with one another from that point on. This shows what really went on between episodes and seasons. And eventually, how the Titans ended up after Things Change and the Trouble in Tokyo. Coming Soon: The Titans Divided and Cyborg Conquered. (Real 4th chap is up & ready to be read!)
1. Chapter 1: The Titans are Rising

Chapter 1: The Titans are Rising

"When there's trouble," Robin smiled with confidence, "you know who to call."

Everyone smiled back at him, everyone, except Raven.

"Who says we have to wait till there's trouble?"

"What?" asked an extremely confused Beast Boy.

"Think about it, two veteran heroes both arrive in a city where an alien race comes to invade? We probably saved a lot of lives and saved this city a lot of damages."

"Hardly call us veterans," Robin mumbled.

"You trained under Batman, correct?" Raven argued.

"Yeah, but-"

"And you worked with the Doom Patrol," she pointedly looked at Beast Boy.

"Yeah," he admitted.

"It's clear you, Starfire, and you, er,-"

"Call me Cyborg, might as well."

"Er, Cyborg. It's clear you two also offer a certain level of strength; you handled yourselves well when we were fighting. I don't know about all of you but there's a possible team here," Raven blushed suddenly. "I'm sorry, I don't usually ramble so much."

"I like it," Beast Boy said, "It would be really nice to be part of a team again, the whole solo hero thing really isn't for me, dude."

"I don't know," Cyborg argued, "I don't really 'do' the whole vigilante justice thing."

"Like I said earlier," Robin agreed, "I just went solo. I'm really not ready to take orders from anyone again."

"Why don't you give the orders then?" Raven reasoned.

"Yes!" Starfire approved, "You had directed us very well in battle, Friend Robin! I believe Friend Raven is making an excellent argument and I am in agreement with her."

"Er, sure," Robin said with a slight blush.

"Cyborg?" Beast Boy begged.

The cybernetic teen sighed, "And just how do you propose we do this whole 'team' thing. You just moved into town and there's no way ya'll are gonna fit at my dad's apartment."

Robin sighed, "Actually, I might be able to pull some strings and get us an actual base-"

"Dude!" BB interrupted, "We gonna get to walk in the Batcave!?"

Robin glared at him.

"What if we were to build this 'base' here, on this island?" Starfire asked.

"That's not a bad idea," Cyborg admitted.

"Dudes! We're totally forgetting the most important part of being part of a superhero team!"

"And what is that, Friend Beast Boy?"

"Team Name!" Beast Boy beamed.

"Teen Titans," Raven suggested quietly.

"What was that Rae?" BB asked.

"Please don't call me Rae, it's Ra-_ven_, and I said Teen Titans. Could you imagine being compared to such powerful ancient beings? Their only downfall was the birth of Zeus and the Olympians, though I doubt that any of us would be having kids since we're all 'teens' here, I think."

"I'm fourteen, but I'll turn fifteen later this year!" BB said.

"Fifteen" Robin said simply.

"I believe I am approximately fifteen Earth years as well!" Star exclaimed.

"Sixteen" Cyborg said.

"And I'll be turning fifteen pretty soon," Raven added. "Now that that's settled, we could change the name, I mean nothing's set in stone with our little group here."

"I like it," Robin said suddenly. "It's the kind of name that demands respect."

"Plus it sounds cool, too!" BB added.

"Like I said, though, nothing's set in stone here; any of us could back out if we want."

"Do you?" Cyborg accused.

"No," she whispered quietly.

"So we're all in then."

"Um, quick question!" BB raised his hand for effect, "How exactly are we gonna build a base on this island?"

"We'll have to get the right papers, but as far as the construction goes..." Robin's voice trailed off.

"We could build a Tower," Cyborg suggested. "Titans Tower. I used to read 'bout forts and things in school; towers were supposed to be super imposing and could frighten enemies very easily."

"That could work, but let's not try to over use the catchy alliteration, it's giving me a headache," Raven said.

Robin gave a dry laugh, while Star and BB looked confused. "Alliter- what?" BB asked.

"I know just who to go to to help build it," Cyborg said with a grin.

"So that's settled," Robin agreed, "How bout we find a place to stay until then?"

The group, the Teen Titans, all nodded in agreement as Raven got ready to phase them off the island.

…

Victor Stone, now Cyborg, stood in front of S.T.A.R. Labs of Jump City, recalling the accident that had taken his humanity and nearly his life, so many years ago. Of course, his father's quick thinking was what had saved him, but there were still those days when Cy wished his mother had been the one to be saved, and the resentment towards his father, for not making what Victor thought should have been the right choice, was unbearable some days.

But he was never one to dwell on mistakes of the past for too long. And the building of this tower was the perfect way to start smoothing things over with his father.

Cy walked into the building to be quickly spotted by Dr. Stone.

"Hey dad, long time no see. Look, I got us a project that I need you to help me with."

"What type of project?"

…

The newspapers had been a-buzz all week with talk of a new team to protect Jump City. The five teens had already been awarded with medals of honor for scaring off the Gordanians, and Jump City was thankful for all the media attention for finally being recognized as an important technology and trade center. Rumors had been spread that Wayne Enterprises was looking into setting up a new West Coast outpost if the arrival of these new 'Teen Titans' had any substance to their rumors, which, as we know, they did.

The Weekly Jump had speculated that Wayne Enterprises was even funding the S.T.A.R. Labs engineers to design the new Titans Tower, but these went unconfirmed, and really, the people of Jump were simply thankful for the protection the superheroes would be offering.

Jump had already had a history of strange villains and lots of crime, but the city had been deemed to small to be of any serious significance, hence, most superheroes opted to protect the bigger cities.

The construction was going much faster than anyone could ever have thought possible, and the Titans had already proven themselves to the police force that they could handle all the really petty theives and common street thugs, Jump City was already cleaned up of any non-metahuman crime, and any of the smart 'baddies' hadn't shown their faces in quite awhile. Of course, the not-so-smart ones did eventually show up to ruin the fun.

Cinderblock had been known to cause some trouble all around Jump, seemingly without any sense of direction or motive other than to simply cause chaos.

Here, the Tower was about two Blocks into its construction, about 2/7 of the way done, and the big behemoth had reared his ugly head to try and slow down the fast working crews.

The crews, being the sensible people that we all know the residents of Jump City to be, cleared out faster than Robin could utter a "Go!" This left the area clear for Cinderblock's path of destruction to be further unhindered by those pesky, yet easily dealt with, bystanders.

Our favorite Titans reached the scene fairly fast, seeing as how they weren't the ones overlooking the construction directly.

"Alright Titans, we need to figure a way to subdue him," Robin stated, watching the behemoth throw some important equipment around.

"Simple," Cyborg offered, "we beat the stuffin' outta him, and send him to that new maximum security prison."

"I think Robin means an attack plan," Raven commented dryly, watching the monster throw some titanium beams together and then into the bay. Now that she had gotten used to her new teammates, Raven wasn't acting as shy as she had first appeared to be.

Cyborg sweat-dropped, "I knew that…"

"I believe the Cinderblock does not appear to be thinking through his actions," Starfire observed as the monster once again rammed his head straight into the unfinished tower.

"Yeah, this dude's got to be a push over. Let's take 'em down!" BB yelled as he lept up to transform into a pterodactyl and commence the battle.

"Wait!" Robin tried to order, but his command fell on deaf ears as Cy and Star joined in.

"C'mon Boy Wonder," Raven said, "If you can't beat them, join them." With that she flew off, hand outstretched toward a black-encased steel beam that was making it's way to Cinderblocks head.

Robin merely glared as he extended a bo-staff to join in the fight.

BB had been knocked aside at first, but was soon back up as a rhino to charge when there was a clear path.

Cy and Star had been using the monster as target practice for their respective sonic canon and starbolts.

Raven's construction beam met it's mark and now their enemy was slightly dazed. Robin threw a couple smoke pellets to further disorient him.

"Beast Boy! Go!" Robin half ordered half yelled across the battlefield.

The green rhino didn't hesitate to plunge headfirst into Cinderblock. After he was down, BB morphed back, rubbing his head.

"Dude, remind me not to do that again!"

"Yeah, wouldn't want to kill what precious few brain cells that might be left," Raven said.

"Yeah, exactly" BB agreed, then realized the insult a moment later with an indignant, "Hey!"

The J.C.P.D. was able to use one of the cranes left over to lift an unconscious Cinderblock onto a containment barge to bring him to the mainland.

Afterward, work continued without a hitch, and by mid-august, nearly a month after the team had first met, Titans Tower was finally inhabitable.

Cyborg was put in charge of giving the other Titans the first ever grand tour.

"May I present to you," Cyborg began, "Courtesy of S.T.A.R. Labs and Wayne Enterprises, the toils of three weeks of nonstop hard work by the great people of Jump City, and yourselves, of course-"

"Take your time, Cyborg," Raven commented.

"I give you, our _base_, our _sanctum_, our _Batcave_-" Robin's mask twitched slightly "-our _Hall of Justice_, our-"

"Dude! I'm dying over here!"

"Our home, Titans Tower!"

With this the cybernetic teen turned and palmed in the security code.

The gigantic doors opened up with a _whoosh_ and the teens were soon staring into… an empty lobby. A really dusty, debris-filled, empty lobby.

"We're gonna be in charge of cleaning up all the leftover construction stuff, but once we do that we can put some lobby chairs down here."

The team proceeded down a semi-clear path towards the running elevator.

"So back here's the elevator that can take you straight up, nearly all the way to the roof-"

"Dude!" BB interrupted, "Is it like that elevator in the chocolate factory thingy? Y'know, the one that goes sideways and fore-ways and back-ways and any other ways you can think of?"

"Uh, no," Cy said, giving the changeling a look that said 'boy, what have you been tripping on?'.

"Oh.."

"Anyways, there's stairs leading to the upper and lower levels-"

"Lower levels?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, the basement for storage stuff, and a hanger-slash-garage area for team vehicles- your R-cycle should've already been moved down there- even a dock area for whenever I get around to building us a T-sub."

"What could we ever need a submarine for?" Raven asked.

"You never know!" Cy said defensively.

Raven merely shrugged in response.

Cyborg started explaining things about the inner architecture and stuff about crossbeams and all the things that would make the impossible T cross section of the tower, well, possible.

BB just looked up in wonder- not even pretending to listen any more.

Star listened intently, but had trouble completely understanding all the words Cyborg was using, she was still very new to Earth.

Raven… was as apathetic as her teammates had come to know her to be.

Robin finally managed to stop Cy's rant.

"How 'bout we just check out the rest of the Tower?"

They rode up the elevator to the 2nd Block.

"This is Beta Block- level 1," Cyborg explained, "Infirmary."

The doors opened to a corridor with several doors running down.

"The Tower's hallway system is fairly simple; the elevator's at the core, so the doors'll open on either side, each corner has a little identifier to remind you what level or block your in, and all the rooms, other than Ops or unused areas, will have the name on the door, like here."

Written out was a simple 'Sick Bay', and inside was enough high-end equipment to run a hospital.

"This is such a waste," Raven said sorrowfully, "It's not like-'

"Duuuude! I really need a bathroom! Now!" BB squeled suddenly.

"Er, down the hall. There's restrooms on every other floor, only problem is, they're only the one person bathtub/shower combo guest types, but our rooms should have private bathrooms for us."

BB was out the door by the word 'hall'.

"Is everything already fully stocked like the infirmary?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, should be. I mean, they left somethings for us to do, like decorate our rooms, and we'll have to set up the Lobby in Alpha Block, but otherwise, it's all taken care of."

"Then like I was saying, it's not like any of us will get sick anytime soon. I have some limited healing abilities, although I can only mostly fix myself, others are harder to heal."

All the rest were staring at her.

"What?"

Robin shook his head. "You're really full of surprises Raven. Once we get the database running, we should figure out how your powers work."

Raven seemed to pale even more. "I'd rather you not, I know the limit of my powers, thank you very much."

She exited into the hall, so the others felt no other choice but to follow. BB met up with them at the elevator.

Beta Block levels 2 and 3 were also meant to be used as sick bays and they all looked pretty much the same anyways, so the team skipped them.

Levels 4 stored the major medical equipment and Level 5 worked as a crime lab for any major cases the police might hand over to the team.

In Gamma Block, what would've been the first three levels was simply a gigantic gym area full of mega weight lifting equipment and indoor obstacle course stuff. Part of the room was separated into a viewing area near what would've been level 3, so others could observe who's training without interfering.

"This is the 'Danger Room', it's for training exercises inside and on level 2 we have a regular strength and endurance training gym. But here, everything can be set to our own personal work out sessions."

They proceeded to Level 2, which was just as Cyborg said, but there was also a little shower/spa area for after workouts. Level 3, the final level in Gamma Block, was storage for training equipment and replacement/repairs.

"Now to Delta Block."

Level 1 was where the evidence room and other office spaces were set up. Robin had already set aside a space filled with recent news clippings of crime in Jump City and even a few about the Titans that had been printed thus far. Level 2 was entirely dedicated to holding cells and interrogation rooms. Level 3- weapons testing/engineering for Robin's crime fighting equipment and Cy's own update and upkeep. Levels 4 and 5 were security centers, but there was also a special panic room that could be used for psychological testing, this was kept under wraps, though. No one wanted to know why you would ever need to test a superhero's state of mind.

Finally, they reached the top. The Operations-Command Center, A.K.A., the Ops room or Ops, if it needed to be shortened even more.

"We've got the kitchen area here to our right, dining to our left, and entertainment-slash-command center-slash-computer access panels straight ahead. The systems should be online soon, and once they are, we'll be able to contact anyone around the world, or even _off_ world."

"Um, dude, I love a sweet view as much as the next green changeling, but… WHERE'S the _TV_!?"

"Calm down, B, the window _is_ the TV," Cy proceeded to scoop up the remote on the coffee table and turned it on to prove his point.

"Wondrous!" Star exclaimed.

"Sweet!" BB agreed.

"Cool," Robin commented.

Raven remained silent and uncaring.

"Anyways, the hallways to either side will lead to North Block or South Block- pretty self-explanatory- this whole area of the Tower is the Ops Block. There's some room still in this particular area, that I'm thinking of installing an indoor pool, there's already one on the roof with retractable paneling so it can be covered up with the helipad or sport courts. But anyways, North and South Blocks are still mostly empty rooms and extra space we'll have to fill up some how."

With that, Cyborg shut off the TV and proceeded to one of the side entrances.

"Ya'll can go ahead and claim your rooms, I'm off to find mine right now."

Raven floated opposite of where Cy was heading, and was soon followed by Beast Boy. Robin found himself to be similarly shadowed by Starfire as he made his way to where Cyborg was heading.

Soon Raven found herself a nice room; floor to ceiling windows, a private bathroom right within reach, it was about double the size of a normal room in the tower. Raven was already thinking about tearing out some of the wall to make room for built in bookshelves.

"Definitely has possibilities," Raven mumbled to herself.

Beast Boy, seeing that Raven had finally chosen her room, ran down the hall and down a couple flights of stairs till he was at the bottom floor of the block. Knowing that Raven was only a couple stories above him was what reassured him, for now. He rushed to pick out a nice, spacious room, unaware that the one he had decided on was one of the only rooms without a private bathroom.

Robin had decided on a room that was fairly close to the Ops Block so he could be close to all his teammates. The room still had a pretty decent view of Jump City, heck, all the rooms in this Tower did. But the Boy Wonder had a feeling he wouldn't be spending too much time to enjoy it here.

Star had chosen a room fairly close by, naturally. It was very open, about twice as big as some of the normal sized rooms and had a large, floor-to-ceiling window that seemed to take up nearly the whole wall. It was depressingly blank, though, and Star's mind was reeling with the possibilities of adding plenty of bright and happy colors to it.

Cyborg's room had already been set up for him. Filled with all the spare parts and extra tech that only he would ever need to use. He had also moved all his sports memorabilia, from his time at Jump High School, to a corner desk area. It even had a few pictures taking up space on the wall.

The team regrouped back in Ops to discuss the redesign and budget for their own personal spaces. Plans were made for special order items or anything that couldn't be built with their own equipment, and by the end of that night Cyborg, Robin, and Beast Boy's rooms were completed to their satisfaction, Starfire either had everything that she'd need for the night or had already been ordered what she'd need long-term and was having it delivered to Titan Isle by tomorrow evening, and finally, Raven had spent the afternoon on a trip 'back home' only to come back with a couple mysterious, and strangely ornate, trunks.

When they convened for their first dinner together in the tower, BB asked her about it.

"So, what was in those trunks that you brought?" his voice was abnormally expectant, as if he was hoping for a gift of some sort.

"How to explain…?" Raven asked herself aloud. "Beast Boy, you know that cartoon you were watching this morning? Something about the Grim Reaper and two kids-"

"Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy? Sure.. OH! Do they work like Grim's trunk? Where you can put a whole bunch of stuff in it and it'll never run out of room?"

"Not quite, there's a limit to how much I can fit into it, and it only works with one of my cases. But just like with those kids, the stuff in those cases are forbidden and extremely dangerous if handled incorrectly." She spoke to the group as a whole, "My room is dangerous, and I really do need my privacy, so no one should go poking their heads into there. _No one_ goes into my room."

All nodded in agreement, after knowing the mystic such a short time, none really wanted to cross her.

Later on, Starfire insisted that they all try some of her special 'made from home, traditional Tamaranean Glorg', which was meant to be for 'the welcoming of new friends in a new home'. It really just looked like some Jell-O type goop with floating pink… _things_ in it.

"Wait," Raven said when BB and Robin were about to take a bite, "Let me try it first."

"Why? What could go wrong?" Robin asked, trying to be reassuring.

"I can sense things, remember? Just let me see how it is first, I've got a bad feeling about this." With that, Raven picked up her utensil and scooped up a bit of the Glorg to take a bite.

Swallowing, she took a moment before giving her okay. "Not bad-" suddenly, she stopped, her face growing even paler than before.

"Bathroom!" she yelled as she flew out to the hall, to the nearest one from the Ops room.

A chorus of 'Raven!' was heard as her teammates attempted to follow.

Robin was the first to reach the door. "Raven, are you okay?" Sounds of the telekinetic vomiting could be heard as her body tried to dispel what had gotten into her system.

"Food… poisoning," she moaned from beyond the door, in between retching.

"Star, what did you put in that stuff?!" BB yelled.

"I believe I was able to find most of the ingredients or substitutes around the Tower complex," Starfire explained worriedly.

"I think I remember you picking some mushrooms from outside," Cy recalled, an idea dawning on him.

"Mush-rooms?" Star asked.

"The fungus that was in your Glorg," Robin realized, his own train of thought going down the same as Cyborg's.

"Star, I need you to show Cyborg exactly where you found that stuff," Robin ordered, "Beast Boy, get the infirmary prepped for Raven, we need to find out what was in that stuff."

Everyone left to his or her specified mission.

Robin attempted to reach Raven again. "Raven, you okay now?" The sounds of her retching had stopped and all was quiet within.

"I'm coming in now, okay?" he warned as he overrode the access code and opened the door.

Inside, the toilet had the seat up, flushing away the evidence, while Raven was lying on the floor beside it clutching her unclasped cloak tightly to her shivering form while pressing a hot cheek to the cool tile floor. Her face was drenched in sweat and her lips were barely moving as she mumbled inaudibly to herself.

"Raven!" the Boy Wonder cried as he scooped her off the floor and rushed her to the elevator. Her cloak had fluttered away in his rush and as the elevator made it's painfully slow trek down to Beta Block, Robin couldn't help but notice how light Raven was. She really was very petite compared to the tall Tamaranean, yet she had a very nice figure-

'Wait, where's that coming from?' Robin thought suddenly. He shook his head in an attempt to clear the thought.

Right now his main concern was Raven, not those awesome curves she hid under that cloak of hers-

_'Stop_, she's a teammate,' Robin chided himself. 'Star's a teammate too, but you weren't going to let that stop you…'

His thoughts switched back to Raven as she snuggled closer to his chest, as if for more warmth. But her forehead was burning up, even hotter than what Robin thought should be possible.

'Must be an allergic reaction or flu or something,' he speculated.

The elevator finally dinged open and Robin hurried to the infirmary where BB had set up most of the equipment. He clearly had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, though, so Robin sent him out to get blankets for Raven.

Star and Cy came in just as Robin had finished up taking a blood sample from Raven, he almost didn't have time to notice how her skin seemed to close up on it's own right after he had taken out the needle, leaving no trace of a scab or scar.

"Just like I thought," Cy began, "Star had accidently used one of those poisonous mushrooms, if you or BB would've eaten it, you'd be dead before it could hit your stomach."

"Star, from now on, if your unsure about anything, anything at all, no matter how dense the question," Robin paused so she could get the full effect of what he was about to say, "Please, just ask one of us first."

"I understand, Robin," she nodded solemnly. And so the torrent of never ending questions began. Little did the masked hero know, how much of a torture he had brought upon himself and his fellow teammates.

"Still leaves one very important question," Cy interrupted as he checked some of the monitors, "How's Raven not affected by the bad mushrooms?"

"That's what I'm going to find out."

BB ran in, blankets in hand.

"What did I miss? Is Raven okay yet?"

"She's fine, just sleeping," Robin reassured as he took a blanket from the changeling and laid in gently upon the ill mystic. "I'm gonna need you guys to leave-"

"No way! Raven's sick! We need to know what's up with her!" BB protested.

"And she can't get any better with all of her team cooped up in one space worrying about her. She needs us to be strong for her while she's recuperating."

"Fine," he griped as Starfire and Cyborg shuffled out with him, each throwing concerned glances at their downed teammate.

Raven was still passed out, but in a very fitful sleep from the sound of things.

Robin took the blood sample and toadstools that had been collected and carefully packaged them to send to Batman. He knew the Dark Knight had an extensive lab and database in the Batcave, even bigger than what the Justice League had.

He scrawled a quick note;

Sick teammate with a toxic substance running through her bloodstream. Need help figuring how she isn't dead by now- appreciated if you could look into it.

-Robin

Sure, he and Batman hadn't left off on the best of terms, but when the Bats had agreed to help out with the Tower, things did get a little better. Besides, Bruce still had Batgirl there to help him, and he did say something about recruiting another Robin to take Dick's place.

But back to the present, Robin sent off the package, knowing that he'd get a reply soon enough from his former mentor.

…

Raven eventually awoke, but very disoriented and unaware of her current surroundings.

"How'd I get in here?"

"Oh! You're up!" Robin had been busy with the analysis he had been sent. Not only did Bruce confirm the toxicity of the fungus, he had discovered what Robin supposed must have been the big secret that Raven was trying to keep.

'I'm not really the hero type. Trust me, if you knew what I really am…'

Raven was a half-demon.

"Robin?"

"Huh? I'm sorry, didn't quite catch that."

"I asked if you guys figured out what was in that stuff."

"Oh," Robin sighed as he collected his thoughts. "Your hunch was right. Starfire accidently used some poisonous mushrooms for her Glorg, but Raven…" he paused, "That stuff should've killed you. I was really concerned so I looked into it and.. well…"

"No, please tell me you didn't find out-"

"Your, erm, heritage? Kinda. Look, none of the others know, but even if they did, it wouldn't matter. We've gotten to know you pretty well, Raven, and-"

"I guess you guys would've found that out eventually, but that's really not the worst thing about me."

"Oh? Well, whatever that is, I'm sure it's not as bad as you're making it out to be," Robin smirked.

"If only you knew, Wonder Boy," Raven sighed as she rolled onto her side, facing away once more from her masked teammate.

An awkward silence hung in the air, neither wanting to be the first to break it. Eventually Robin broke down, pulled up a nearby chair to sit on, and shuffled some papers out.

"Well, while your still awake, we might as well fill out some of these files," he said cheerily.

"Files?" She asked as she turned once more towards the boy wonder.

"Yeah, you think that this city would just accept a bunch of random superheroes to take care of them? Besides, we want to leave a legacy behind, don't we? Best way for future Titans to know how the original core group handled themselves is to look back on what we can leave behind for them," he explained.

"Makes sense. Are you going to upload this into the Tower system, too?"

"Sure, but if you want, we can put certain security clearances on everyone's info."

"That would definitely make it safer from being hacked, but that doesn't mean that someone still won't find a way."

"Guess that's true enough," Robin smirked as he handed a file and a pen over to her.

Raven sighed as she began to fill out the basic information on the first sheet. "If anyone's going to upload my info, it's going to be me. Like I said, there's still stuff that you guys can't know about me… not just yet anyway."

"You know, secrets aren't exactly the best way to keep friends."

"You think I haven't already lost people close to me?" she asked seriously.

Robin coughed uneasily, trying to clear his throat. He clearly stumbled onto a sensitive subject, and he understood how it felt when someone had pushed a little too far.

"I think everyone here's lost something," he confessed.

Raven sighed, "I guess I'll have to tell most of you in due time, and you are the leader. Can I trust you, Robin?"

Robin tried to show that he was looking her in the eye, even with that mask in the way.

"Of course. You're my friend, Raven. Even in this short time that we've all gotten to know each other, I feel like I've known you guys all my life."

"Okay then… See, I was born in a place called Azarath," she started. "It's like no place that you've ever heard of, it's… I guess… " she struggled to find the right phrase, "In between dimensions? Or maybe universes? Either way, I guess I'm about as alien as Starfire, but I'm still half-human. My mother was from Earth and was brought to Azarath after the monks there had learned of my… conception. I really wasn't supposed to be born, but here I am. Because of my heritage, as you so eloquently put it, I was taught to restrain my emotions. My powers are extremely emotion driven. I can't afford to feel anything too strongly, but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings; I'll deny it anyways, that's how I was raised, but those emotions are still there. Obviously, being a half-demon still has some perks; healing, my limited telepathy, telekinesis, I even have some empathic abilities. I was taught plenty of magic spells and forms, mostly light magic, but Azar, the High Priestess in charge of essentially raising me, she taught me a little of each kind. She said it would make me well rounded and aware of the good and evil in the world.

"I had to take quite a few things from Azarath to charm my room," Robin gave her a funny look here, "For my own protection, and yours," she quickly explained, "Although, I should probably add some security to it. There are things in there that, if handled even the slightest bit incorrectly, could kill us… or worse…"

Robin tried to not think of what _worse_ could mean.

"Huh. With all that you've said, I don't really believe there can be much more you're hiding from me, Raven," the Boy Wonder challenged.

"Trust me, Wonder Boy, there's still plenty that I'm not telling you, and if I have things my way, none of you will ever find out more than just this."

She let the comment hang there as she finished up the last of the files to be stored in a filing cabinet somewhere. Yawning, she shuffled them all together into a folder and handed them to Robin.

"I'll store these in the database when I get enough sleep first," she yawned again, "Stupid toxins. I'm sleeping."

She lay down once more to get that extra shut eye as Robin left to find the others and tell them that Raven was going to be fine.

…

"So man, what did she tell you?" Cyborg asked eagerly after Robin had placated BB's fears.

"There's a thing called Doctor-Patient confidentiality," Robin smirked, "Raven's going to tell each of you in her own time, but for now, she just needs our trust."

"But-" BB tried to ask, but Robin cut him off.

"Like I said, we've got to wait for Raven to come around."

"Yes, friend Raven has proven to be very loyal to us, as we have proven to each other," Star agreed, "I am confidant that Raven will repay us the trust when the time is due."

"Alright guys," Robin yawned, mostly likely infected by Raven's earlier, "It's been a long day. Let's set up a rotation to check up on Raven overnight while we try to get some sleep."

…

Cyborg had volunteered to go first and with nothing to do but fill out some of the files Robin and Raven had been working on earlier. He worked quietly in the company of Raven's soft snores, which seemed to swallow up the otherwise silent room.

Cy's silent typing was brought to a halt as a thought suddenly overcame him. It was a memory he had long since forgotten. One of those types that are recalled every few years, only very fondly with no real lasting impression from any of the major details of it. But now Cy remembered so much more…

"Mom, Dad," a young Victor, only age 6 or 7, asked very somberly, "Can I have a little sister?"

The doctors laughed softly at the antics of their only son. After a long day at work, his undertakings could be quite amusing at times.

"Vic, honey," his mother said, "I'm sorry, but it doesn't quite work that way. Your father and I have had this discussion before and we really wanted only one, you."

"But I could take care of her and protect her and make sure she's okay and and and I want to be a big brother!"

His father chuckled a little more. "We'll think about it, Vic. For now, push it out of your mind and we'll get back to you."

Cyborg laughed to himself ever so softly now. It was such a dumb, little kid thing he did and yet, now he had finally gotten those younger siblings, right?

BB was already like an annoying little brother, Robin the headstrong middle sibling, Star was… Star really had her own category, seeing as how Cy hadn't really had much bonding time with her, not yet anyway. But Raven really was like that little sister he had always wanted; heck, he'd already been the first one to reassure her once already, before that huge fight with the Gordanians, and he was the first to volunteer to look after her.

'Never would've figured Lil' Sis would look like this,' he thought to himself. 'And judging from what little Rob gave me 'bout her, well… she may be only half-human, but she's human all the same. She thinks she can take care of herself, but she'll need us, she'll need help, need care, need protection, need someone to check up on her, need a big-'

"..brother…" Raven mumbled suddenly.

Cyborg froze over the keyboard.

Who knew Raven talked in her sleep?

Cy listened for anymore, but was only answered with more soft snores.

"I'll be that big brother for you, Rae. You're already like a lil' sis…"

…

Starfire definitely found this world to be extremely confusing and at first she was too… proud? Was that the right translation?

Yes, she would not swallow her pride and ask her teammates about the wonders of this new world, but after this incident, Star swore she would learn as much as she could about this world and this new culture, until she knew it just as well as her own.

Setting those thoughts aside, Star kept watch over Raven. Cyborg had explained the basics of the machines and how to read them for signs of trouble. He had also explained how they wanted her to fill out the files, which she had just finished with some difficulty. English was indeed a hard language to write in, and Earth's writing utensils were stranger than the ones Star was used to, but she eventually filled them out to the best of her ability.

Now that she was done, Star checked the monitors for any of those changes Cy had said to look out for, but all seemed calm. 'At least this is a good way to be making the up with Raven,' Star thought, if she was going to be speaking English, she could use all the practice she could get, even if that meant having to think in the foreign tongue. 'X'Hal, I cannot help but feel great…' Star struggled to think of the right word.

"Compunction," Raven mumbled in her sleep.

'Yes, great compunction and remorse for what I have done. Oh, friend, I do hope you could forgive me for this awful accident I have caused.'

"'S okay.. " Raven mumbled as she turned over in the sheets, "…. No big… deal.." She stilled again and fell deeper into her dream.

Starfire found no strangeness in the fact that Raven was clearly talking in her sleep. On Tamaran, it was quite common for small children, though, they usually out grew it. Star figured that on Earth there would be many similarities; the two species anatomies were clearly somewhat similar, so why not sleeping habits as well?

…

Beast Boy was already bored out of his mind. Sure, he hadn't filled out the files completely and he should probably get on that, but they were just boring him even more. Raven was sleeping so peacefully, her soft snores filled up the silence of the room. Yet, Beast Boy desperately wished that she could wake u-

Raven's eyes shot open suddenly, confusion evident on her face only to be replaced by a glare as she righted herself to sit up.

"Raven?" BB asked tentatively.

"What were you thinking?" she accused in a semi-sleepy voice.

"Uh…"

"Just now, what were you thinking about?"

"Oh," he understood what she meant, "I was bored and I really, er, wanted you to wake up?" he finished as if he was begging for forgiveness.

Raven groaned as she fell back into the sheets.

"Great, NOW my telepathy starts acting up," she mumbled to herself.

"Telepathy? You mean you can read our minds!?" BB asked.

"Not entirely," Raven explained, "It takes a lot of my concentration, and usually I can only pick up on the basics of what a person's thinking, but when my powers act up, especially when I'm sick like now, well, my subconscious takes over my telepathic and empathic abilities. It's really embarrassing for everyone."

"Huh, do you know what Cy and Star were thinking while they were in here earlier?"

"No, obviously I was asleep," she cleared her throat quickly as a thought occurred to her, "You guys are keeping watch over me?"

"Yeah, we all wanted to make sure you'd be okay, y'know?"

"That's… nice," Raven commented with a slight blush growing.

The silence lasted a little too long as Raven considered whether or not she should stay and sleep the rest of the night in the sick bay or go to her own room. BB made the decision for her.

"Y'know, they say laughter is the best medicine there is," the changeling started, "I could tell you some jokes I kn-"

"No," Raven interrupted, then continued as she saw BB's crestfallen expression, "Thanks, but I feel a whole lot better. I'm just going to go to my own bed now."

"Oh, okay," BB said, "'Night Raven!"

"Goodnight, Beast Boy," Raven said as she phased out.

"Might as well finish these up," he mumbled to himself, finally getting to work on those dumb files.

…

Robin came in for his shift, only to find BB struggling to fill out the final file.

"Where's Raven?" the Boy Wonder asked.

"Dude! Don't scare me like that!"

"Where's Raven?" he repeated.

"Oh, I accidently woke her up and she left to go sleep in her room- Said she felt fine!" he tried to add, but Robin had left by 'sleep'.

He made his way up to Raven's room and as soon as he reached her door, he hesitated so he could knock first.

"Raven," he called, unsure as to whether she'd still be up at all.

Eventually, she got up to open the door a crack.

"Much as I love to stay up late into the night, even I need my sleep, Robin."

"Just checking up on you to be sure you're okay," he said.

"Well, I am recovering from ingesting and nearly being killed by a poisonous mushroom, something a normal person wouldn't be living through. I'm pretty sure I'm the best judge of whether or not I'm okay."

Robin smirked, "Well if you're sure you're okay…"

"Goodnight Robin," Raven yawned.

"'Night Raven," Robin replied as she slid the door shut.

...

Author's Note: Kudos to my awesome Beta: Stormy-chan. I wouldn't be able to do this without you. This first chap's for you! Also, for my friends- you guys know who you are- who usually check over everything I write in "The Notebook" before I even consider typing it up. Thanks guys!

To Everyone, a wise author before me once said- It's a fanfiction crime to read and not review. So drop me a line and tell me how I did!

Update: Okay, I'm obviously a HUGE RobRae person. I can't stand the RobStar pairing. But as a challenge to myself, I'm going to write this story with as much balance between the two pairings. I don't mind BBRae as much, so that will be much easier for me to write. (Don't worry, when the time comes, BBTerra will be dealt with, but that's not for quite awhile, yet) I want this to be a fic that any fan of the series could enjoy. It's all just filling in the cracks and I'm going off of the series as much as possible.  
I've recently revised this chap, just more detail added, some grammar mistakes that both my beta and I must've missed (in our defense, this was a really long chap) and little things like that. Hopefully it's a little better than the first time around, but not much has changed.

Well what are you doing still reading this? Tell me how I did and get on with your life! See you next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2: The Stay Home Movie Night

Chapter 2: The Stay Home Movie Night

In the Ops room, a chorus of yawning could be heard throughout, due mostly in part that the team hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. Spending half the night worrying over a teammate didn't exactly help a growing teen get those much needed eight hours.

Raven had just walked in as if this was what she had been expecting every morning, and not as if this were the first morning of many that the Titans would be spending together.

"Raven! You are well!" Starfire squealed as she flew to give the empath a crushing hug. It had been clear to everyone that Star was definitely more of a morning person than most would think, but then again, she always seemed perpetually happy no matter the time.

"Need… AIR!"

"Oh, do forgive me friend! I am most-"

"It's okay, Starfire. It's not your fault, you just need to be more careful around here from now on, agreed?"

"Agreed!" she beamed.

"Hey Raven! Glad to see you're okay!" Cyborg called from the kitchen area, which was now a mess, where he was making his soon-to-be-ever-famous waffles.

"Good morning, Cyborg," Raven replied, "What exactly are we having here?" She took a seat at the counter as the others filed in to get their own share, all except Beast Boy. He stood off to the side glaring at all of the 'traitors'.

"I'm not eating that stuff!"

"Why not? They can't be that bad," Robin asked, which earned a little glare from the half metal teen.

"Dude! Did you see what Cyborg used to make that stuff?!"

"Only what waffles usually calls for," Cyborg defended, "Plus my own special ingredients to add a little somethin' to 'em."

Raven poured a little syrup on hers and took a bite. "Cinnamon?" she guessed.

"H-how-?"

"I have a highly developed sense of taste," she deadpanned, "Also, you left a container on the counter there."

Cy whipped around to see the cinnamon indeed lying on the counter, right next to the waffle iron.

"Oops…"

"It's not that! He used EGGS!" BB looked like he was about to faint, "And MILK!"

"You said yesterday that you're a vegetarian!" Cy accused.

"Yeah and vegetarians don't eat or drink stuff that comes from animals! It would be like you guys are eating me or, like, I'd be a cannibal or something!"

"Vegetarians still drink milk and eat fish," Raven argued, "Technically, if you're going to live off only plant products, you'd be a vegan."

"But is not Beast Boy from Earth?" Star asked, very confused, "The Vegan people are most formidable, and their skin color is of a much more blue tone, I believe."

"Uh, veganism is a lifestyle choice here, Star," Robin tried to explain, "And BB _is_ from Earth."

Star still looked a little lost.

"Not the point here!" BB yelled once more, "I'm not eating it! And if you guys were really my friends, neither would you!"

"Man, the eggs are made so that there was no chance a baby chick would ever hatch out of 'em. Plus, I'm sure all those cows and farm animals are being treated real nice where ever they are, otherwise PETA would've been all over 'em," Cy attempted to reason.

"Pee-tah?" Starfire asked, but was promptly ignored as the argument continued.

"It's the principal of the thing, Cyborg," Raven said, trying to be diplomatic, "Beast Boy sympathizes with his fellow animal-kind, so he's trying to be respectful and live a vegetarian lifestyle. Most of the monks where I had lived had taken it up, too. By extension, that pretty much made me a vegetarian for the longest time."

"See, Raven understands! That's why I say we ditch the murder meat and switch to Tofu!"

"Aaannd that's where you lose my support," Raven said as she stuffed more waffles into her mouth.

"Toe-foo?" Star asked.

"Man, there's no way I'm ever eating that nasty stuff! Meat free substitute my butt! Pff, nothing's ever going to be as good as the real deal!"

"C'mmmoooooooonn! It's great! Nothing like scrambled tofu eggs with soy milk and breakfast fruit on the side! Mmm!" BB drooled slightly at the thought.

"Here, I promise, everyone is going to get the chance to cook for us, okay BB?" Robin tried, "For now, just make yourself cereal with soy milk or something."

"Fine," BB grumbled.

"So you're a vegetarian, Raven?" Cyborg asked.

Raven nodded in affirmation, as her mouth was full of her last bites of waffle.

"Was, and not by choice," she explained, "It was a part of my diet growing up, I never really knew that I'd gone without eating meat, it was just a spiritual thing. Kind of like what Earth's Buddhists believe, actually the overall culture there definitely had a little of every Earth religion incorporated somehow, but don't all beliefs start looking the same? It was my job to study a lot about Earth. You'd be surprised by how diverse yet essentially the same everything here really is."

"Huh, that's pretty cool, though," BB commented as he sat with his bowl of cereal and soy milk, "But you'd still eat meat now?"

"Like I said, it was a spiritual thing, so no, I wouldn't mind eating meat or drinking milk."

"And I don't blame you! Meat is amazing! Hamburgers are to die for! Steak! Mmm-mmm!" BB looked like he was going to either faint or throw Cy out the window. "Bacon tastes good! Pork chops taste good!-"

"And sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I wouldn't know, cause I don't eat the nasty little motherfuck-OW!" Raven smacked Robin upside the head.

He smirked as he rubbed his cranium. "What was that for?"

"There's never a need for foul language this early in the morning or at the breakfast table, for that matter," she glared back, "and I would appreciate it if you could respect that."

"I'm guessing you've seen 'Pulp Fiction', then?"

"I have," she blushed, "and it was a good, if not pointless, movie."

"'Pulp Fiction'? You kiddin'? That movie's great!" Cy said.

"Please, friends, what is this 'movie' that you are so interested in?"

"Duuuude, Movie Night!" BB said. "Star, you're gonna love this! We'll have to show you all the classics! And you're gonna love the comedies, I know a whole bunch!"

"Please, we should watch action!" Robin argued, "We could learn something from watching the stunt guys, plus it's way cooler than getting a quick laugh!"

"Dude! Comedy is amazing-!"

"Enough!" Raven commanded, "Pointless arguments over a meaningless source of entertainment is beneath us. What we should be spending time doing is discussing our routine as a team. Training, meal times, recreational activities, sleep schedule. Are we even going to enforce a nightly patrol or-?"

"Shouldn't have to," Cy said, "Computers are set so any time there's a crime in progress, or even a definite possibility, the alert system will go off and the mainframe will tell us who, what, when, where, how. Pretty effective, but it's up to us to get there in time."

"As for an overall work schedule," Robin thought aloud, "I'd say me and Cy are pretty used to the Monday through Friday thing, with free weekends. Or as free as I could get."

"That could work," Raven said, "Plus, it'll be a schedule that the people here are used to. What day is it today?"

"Friday," Robin answered automatically.

"So no training until we have everything settled on Monday, then we'll start an official routine."

"Dude, we're teens! We can't stick to a schedule!"

"Pretty sure that's just you, B," Cy mocked.

And so our favorite heroes got to work setting up their routine as they enjoyed the rest of their meal. A sort of rotation system to log in training hours was put in order. By the end of the week everyone was required to have a certain number of training hours to keep him or her in top physical condition. There was plenty of time set aside for group training and one-on-one mock battles, but the Titans found out that Beast Boy had been partially right. Teens are lazy by nature, so the Titans had set aside plenty of time for 'recreational activities', as Raven had put it earlier. For the boys, this mostly consisted of video games, for Raven, whatever she was planning, which seemed to be mostly reading, and for Starfire, trying to learn all she could about Earthen culture.

It was sometime after breakfast had long been over, BB was currently trying to explain video games to Star, when the alarm went off. Robin jumped up from the couch to one of the computers underneath the window-tv.

"Titans! There's a fire in the suburbs just south of the abandoned observatory!" Robin exclaimed. "Raven, think you can get us there?"

"No problem," she said as she morphed into her soul self and scooped up her teammates.

…

"-We are here live on the scene, Bill. Reports tell us there are still two children trapped inside their homes and plenty of others as well. The flames here seem to be acting as a barrier, keeping J.C.F.D. from getting anywhere close and blocking all efforts to reach-" the reporter is cut off as some people from the crowd start up all pointing toward something in the sky.

"Look, up in the sky! It's a bird!" "It's a plane!" "No, It's Superman!" "No, that's in Metropolis! It's one of those kids! One of those, er, Olympians?" "Naw, it's the Titans! The Teen Titans!"

A cheer rolls through the small crowd as the shadowy bird deposited the 4 Titans, turned to the flames and disappeared.

"Titans! Let's put out that fire!"

While they got to work, helping the fire department tremendously, Raven had reached the first of the kids, a little boy who had passed out from smoke inhalation. She teleported them out quickly and healed him as best she could until some paramedics took over.

She went back for the other one, sensing some others in distress, but knowing that the youth took precedence when it came to emergency situations.

"Hello? Anyone?" She tries to call over the roar of the flames. The heat was getting to be too much, even for a half demon, the Titans would have to work quickly if they were going to salvage anything from the fire.

"Help! Here!" A small voice calls faintly.

Raven phased through a few walls until she found the kid, a little girl of about 9 or 10. She had a death grip on some small object in her hands.

She gasps suddenly, "You're one of those Teen Titans!"

Raven smiles wryly in response, "I'm here to help. I'm going to get you out of here, but I need to find some others too. This is going to feel… odd, but I'm going to use my magic to get us all out."

The girl nodded solemnly and shut her eyes tight, ready for whatever _odd_ sensation that would overcome her. All she felt was a slight shiver up her spine, and an unbearable sense of unease, then she heard the sound of new voices surrounding her.

"Mom! Dad's over here! He's safe!" "Diana! My baby!" "Mrs. Johnson! You made it!"

Diana perks her head up. "Mommy?"

"Hold on," Raven says gently, "I'm going to heal you a little first."

Her hand glows blue as she healed some minor burns and scratches the girl had gotten.

"Diana!" The mother scooped up her healthy child and as the two share a fierce hug, she turns to the hero.

"Thank you so much! You and all the other Titans! Thank you!"

"Uh… Just doing our job, ma'am," Raven replied awkwardly as she turned to help her friends put out the last of the flames.

...

Beast Boy had gone through a lot of bad experiences with the Doom Patrol, but fire was a little new. He had been traveling abroad with those adults for so long, keeping the whole world safe from harm, that he never had the chance to help civilians one-on-one like this. It felt much more rewarding seeing the benefits then and there instead of just knowing that he had 'done good'. No, being a hero should mean more than just saving the world, it should be about keeping everyone safe, no matter how small the danger may seem in the scheme of things.

Robin understood that. Working all those years with Batman had taught him the value of each citizen, the value of preserving the gentle balance of the system. Putting out fires, stopping robbers, little things to keep the people safe. That's what it was all about for him. Let the big big baddies come, they could be stopped from time to time, but things that could happen at any moment, like natural disasters, that's where being a hero really needed to count.

Cyborg was used to helping out Jump City. Things like this happened all the time here, but there wasn't much the civilian population could do about it. Sure, Cy had tried to help out when he could, but it was a lot for just one guy. Now that the team was really together on this endeavor, it felt like the possibility of keeping this city as safe as it had once been was more likely now than ever.

Starfire was not used to these types of situations. Back on Tamaran, everyone existed quite peacefully, a nearly picture perfect utopian society. The trouble only came when their enemies were upon them, like the dreaded Gordanians. Even then, Tamaraneans worked together to rebuild, bigger and better. This was Star's chance as well, to restart a new life on this new planet.

As they all reflected on these thoughts, the fire soon was extinguished and they were surrounded by the cheers of the citizens that they had helped.

They now stood proudly, surrounded by a crowd. Applause and congrats was washing over them in waves of gratitude. Robin was making a press statement and all the Titans were receiving individual thanks from the firefighters, the civilians, everyone.

Raven felt a light tug on her cloak, it was the little girl again.

"I want to give you something," she said sheepishly.

"You don't ha-"

"But I _want_ to! Here!" She shoves the small object she hand been holding onto for dear life earlier.

It was a tiny pony. Not just any pony, a My Little Pony. It was a purple unicorn, from what Raven could tell, and it had a pink streak running through its mane and tail; a pink, six-pointed star on its flank, much like My Little Ponies often had.

"Her name is Twilight Sparkle, and she's helped me through all of elementary school so far and maybe she'll bring you some luck too! You're both, like, MAGIC!" she beams as she hands her newfound hero the Little Pony.

Raven thanked the girl quietly and soon the next person stepped up to congratulate her work.

Meanwhile, a certain reporter had somehow managed to make the Dark Knight's apprentice pause in his answers for the press. It was an unexpected question, to say the least, but Robin seemed to be taking up too much time to answer the impatient journalist's question.

"How do you plan on skipping out of the education system? You teens do have a life outside of this hero stuff, right?"

Robin thought a moment longer. "I'm sure the California education system will understand if we all finish our high school careers through another method rather than the traditional way," he worded carefully. This still sent the remainder a-buzz with more questions.

"How do you plan-?" "What do you mean-?" "Are you all-?" "Maybe you should-?"

"No further comment."

Robin called up the rest of his team on the Titan Communicators- or T-Coms, for short –everyone had gotten oh so long ago. When the Titans arrived at the Tower- it was beginning to feel more like a home, if anything- Beast Boy immediately took to rounding everyone up for the movie night. Raven was trying to dodge him.

"I just need a minute. I'll be in Ops in a second."

"But Raven!" BB tried to reach out to stop her, accidentally tripping over his own feet. As fate would have it, he landed on her cloak, also tripping up the telekinetic causing her to fall and drop the My Little Pony she had been carrying with her all the way.

Cyborg gently picked up the small, slightly charred filly.

"Uh, didn't know you liked Ponies, Raven," he said, cracking a smile while Robin tried to keep a straight face and BB broke into a fit of giggles.

"It was a gift," she blushed as she snatched the horse away and stalked down the hall.

"Please, why is Raven upset by this 'pony'? Is it not something a young female is meant to carry on their person?" Star asked.

BB giggled some more. Robin did his best to explain.

"Well, there's this toy thing called 'My Little Pony', usually only girls MUCH younger than Raven play with them, as in six year olds. But just from knowing Raven this long, something kind of tells me she didn't exactly play with dolls and things when she was a kid."

The group had been walking the rest of the way to Ops from the roof top where Raven had dropped everyone off, and they found the empath already there, reading.

"About time you got here," she greeted, not looking up from her dusty book.

"Dude! Let's see what sort of movie collection we've got!" The changeling said as he dove for the control panel where all the media storage was.

Cyborg set to work gathering candy and making popcorn for everyone to enjoy. Robin explained popcorn to Star as they made their way to the couch; Robin sitting to Raven's right, Star on his other side.

"Sweet! All the Disney classics, you'll love those Star! Hmm, and we've got some new releases- Dude! This one isn't even out in theaters yet! Oh, but 'Clash of the Planets'! And those other two big space movie franchises! Oh, we've got to watch 'em all!"

"B! One at a time man!" Cy yelled over BB's fanboy cries. "I'm pretty tired, and I know I can only handle one movie for tonight. What 'bout you guys?"

The others nodded in consent as he down on Star's side, the far right of the couch, and all waited for BB to come to a decision.

He seemed absolutely torn between all the different choices and Star floated over to see if she could 'offer the assistance'. She picked out a few that caught her eye while BB was mumbling about the pros and cons of his favorites.

"I must know my friends! Why do these movies all share names similar to our own team name?"

As she sets them on the coffee table, Raven glances up from her book. "A cheesy 80's, historically inaccurate movie about a myth, one of the 'greatest love stories-slash-tragedies of all time', and a classic film for football fans, go figure," she mumbles.

"Hey! 'Remember the Titans' is pretty good!" Cyborg defends.

"And 'Clash of the Titans' was a great film for its time!" Robin also declared.

"Raven, you say this 'Titanic' is a love story. Why is there a large ship on the cover? Does one fall in love with the ship? Where might it be sailing? Why is it a tragedy? Is it a very sad picture of motion?"

"Sweet! I know exactly what we're watching!" Beast Boy suddenly burst out, interrupting everyone.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with," Raven says as she bookmarks the page for later.

BB pops in the movie and bounced over to sit on Raven's left, the only seat left on the sofa. It was one of those that no one seemed to particularly like, but none made any move to stop it from playing. It had the team talking and soon they simply started socializing.

Star told them a few stories of what Tamaran was like. BB recalled a long forgotten adventure when he had lived in Africa. Robin told of a sticky situation he & his mentor had found themselves in. Cyborg reminisced of his days before his big accident.

"I still kind of miss being able to compete in sports. That was everything to me. So when this happened, I just dropped out. Regret it like hell now, but there's not much I can do."

"Er, actually, there will be," Robin said. "I guess we'll all be enrolling for an alternate homeschooling type of program. It's through the J.C.I.S.D. and it's a far cry from a traditional school, but at least the state won't get on us for truancy."

"Anyway we could test out of it?" Raven asked suddenly.

Robin shrugged. "Wouldn't hurt to ask."

"Aw man, I hate school! I barely learned anything when Rita was supposed to be teaching me! How'm I supposed to learn now?!" BB complained.

"I could help you," Raven volunteered.

"Really?" BB got a hopeful look in his eyes, making Raven hesitate.

"Er, yeah, sure."

"Sweet!"

"Boo-yah! I can finally finish taking German!" Cy cheered.

"You took German?" Robin asked, "Bru- I mean, Batman forced me into Latin. I'm really not looking forward to this."

"I could help you two, also. I know my fair share of languages."

"Really? Which ones?"

"English- obviously- German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit. I'm well read in those languages, at least. Speaking is a different matter, but I'd like to help any way I can."

"Glorious! This shall be an excellent opportunity for I as well to learn more of Earth!" Starfire said with a beaming smile.

"Dude, this'll be perfect for you, Star! You sh- OH MY- HAHAHAHAHAHA! Did you see that!?"

The team was soon distracted once more by the movie and the topic was dropped.

...

Cyborg let a yawn slip once more, the movie had lost it's charm yet again and the team was getting bored fast.

"I'm gonna get some more drinks for everyone," he said, getting up to go to the kitchen.

"Coke." "Pepsi!" "The Dew of the Mountain, please!" "Sweet tea." Cy fixed himself a Dr. Pepper.

"Hey, I know a great game to play," Robin said as Cy passed out the drinks.

"Well? spit it out, man!" Cy reprimanded.

"But Robin has nothing in his mouth..." Star stated, very confused by the idiom.

"It's just a saying Star, he means that he wants Robin to say what he has to instead of beating around the bush," Raven explained.

"Robin is beating a bush?" Star did a double take to make sure that there were no harmed shrubbery in the vicinity.

Raven sighed, "Just another saying, never mind. What game, Robin?"

"It's called 'I never'," Robin started, "You start by saying 'I never', then you say something you did or didn't do, if someone _has_ done it, then they drink to it."

"What kind of example are you setting up, man?" Cyborg mock-chided, "Playing drinking games! Is this what the famous Boy Wonder did when Batman wasn't looking? Or is this something the Dark Knight taught you himself?"

Robin blushed ever so slightly, "You guys want to play or not?"

"Sure!" "I'm in." "Why not?" "I would love to join on the fun to be had!"

"Okay, um, I never... I never did something illegal," he started, taking a quick drink of his Coca Cola. Raven also took a small sip of her tea, Cy a bit of his Dr. Pepper.

"Can it be something that simply was not to be done because it was considered wrong?" Starfire asked, "On my home world, we did not have the laws like you seem to have here on Earth."

"Uh, sure, as long as you get the basic idea," Robin consented.

Star took a little sip of her drink.

Everyone stared at Beast Boy, who hadn't taken a drink from his Pepsi. "Hey, raised by heros here! It's not like I ever got the chance to do much of anything anyways..." There was a hint of bitterness to his voice.

"Alright, so who's next?" Robin asked.

"How 'bout me? Um, let's see," Cyborg sat a minute thinking, "I've never been anywhere other than Jump."

Everyone drank except Cyborg.

"Go figure," he sighed.

"I wish to take the turn!" Star said, "I have never met any others so kind as all of you!"

Star drank, as did Raven. The guys seemed to hesitate a little, as if considering if they met someone who might've been nicer than these strangers that they had met so randomly.

'Bruce wasn't exactly the nicest guy, and Alfred was okay, but he was paid to be nice,' Robin thought before he took a swig.

'Steve was kind of tough, but not mean. And Rita was really cool,' Beast Boy thought as he drank as well.

'People at school were okay, but none of them were really close friends, especially after the accident' Cy remembered as he too sipped some more of his soda.

"Okay, my turn" Beast Boy declared, "Um, I never..." he laughed nervously, "I never kissed a girl."

Robin took a drink, Cy too, surprisingly, Star did as well, which earned her a couple looks from the guys and a raised eyebrow from Raven.

"Are mothers and sisters not girls?" she asked innocently.

"Guess none of us ever thought of that before," Raven said.

"Well, your turn now, Raven," the masked teen nudged her.

"If I must," she sighed, "I never... had a normal childhood."

Cy and Star both drank. BB and Robin looked sorrowfully at Raven. They understood what she really meant by not having a normal childhood, even if they didn't quite realize it yet.

"Me again," Robin said, "I never had powers at some point in my life."

Sweet Tea and Mountain Dew were gulped down.

"Okay, me," Cy thought some more, "I've never driven a car or flown a plane or anything like that."

"Can you have operated a spaceship at some point?" Star asked.

"Sure."

She took a drink, along with Robin, BB and Cy.

They stared at Raven.

"What?"

Robin shook his head in mock disappointment. Star started her turn.

"I never have had more than fond attraction in another very good friend before," she blushed as she took a sip.

Coke and Dr. pepper were also sipped on. BB hesitated before he drank from his Pepsi.

"I can't feel," Raven explained before she got more stares.

"C'mon, everyone has feelings," the green teen said.

"Well, I don't. I can't afford to feel. My powers would run amuck."

"Please, you have to feel something."

"I don't, and I never will, just drop it."

"But-"

"I said to drop it," she warned, her voice getting dangerously low.

BB took the hint and decided to save himself from torment right then. "Um, okay, I never made it through a whole movie without being completely bored out of my mind."

Coke, Dr. Pepper, Sweet Tea.

"Wait, that's right, this is Star's first movie!" Robin realized when the extraterrestrial hadn't taken a sip of her soda.

He chuckled a little as he realized that they had ruined her first experience watching motion pictures.

"My turn now," Raven said, then glared at the teen wonder as she said her next sentence, "I never played meaningless 'get to know each other' games before now."

Dr. Pepper and Coke.

"Back to me," Robin said, he attempted his own jab at the dour telekinetic, "I've never seen the world as full of half empty glasses, at some point in my life at the very least."

Sweet Tea, much as the masked teen expected, Pepsi, Coke, Dr. Pepper.

"Um, excuse me, but, how can the world be filled with something that is empty?" Star asked.

"Another expression, Star," Raven explained, "It means being pessimistic, not looking at the world in a more positive light. And I'll have our boy blunder over here know that for a pessimist, I'm pretty optimistic."

Robin inhaled a bit of his coke as he took another sip, which caused him to splutter uncontrollably.

"You listen to Paramore?" he asked when he had settled down.

"Yeah, sometimes," she said cautiously.

"Huh..." he doesn't answer any further.

"Okay, me," Cyborg was quicker to think of something now, "I never listen to rock music."

Dr. pepper, Sweet Tea, Coke.

"Just don't really like it, I've got my own music I like to listen to," the changeling said.

"I have not listened to any Earth music, but I would love to hear all of it!" Star beams.

"Uh, don't think we have the time right now, but we'll introduce it to you soon," Cy says, "It's your turn now, Star."

"Indeed, hmm," Star thought a moment, "I never knew of the miniature horses of which we claim ownership before today."

All looked at the alien as she took a drink.

Suddenly it dawned on Raven. "She's talking about the My Little Pony, isn't she?"

The guys all burst out laughing, unable to help themselves as they realized that was exactly what Star had meant.

"Oh- oh- okay," BB tried to contain himself as he thought of another 'good one', "I never played with dolls or girl toys before!"

This sobered up the other two teens as they each glared at the changeling, taking sips of their respective drinks. Star took her own sip as well.

"Had to once when I was over at a friend's house, they had a little sis that wouldn't stop bugging us till we played with her," Cy defended.

"Same here," Robin said.

"Well, I think our little game is winding down," Raven said, "This'll be my last, then no more." She took a moment to think. "I never knew that people could be so cruel, to judge someone for being caught with a children's toy all of one time."

She took her sip, showing how unsurprised she really was with them.

Coke, Pepsi, Dr. pepper.

"I do not believe that we have passed the judgement onto you, Raven," Star said quietly as she set her soda down.

All followed suit and tried to focus on the movie once more.

They were once again immersed in it, forgetting most of the game they had played and getting lost in what little plot the film actually gave signs of having. They chatted and laughed once more at the senseless movie.

...

When the credits were rolling, Beast Boy slunk out before anyone could force him into helping clean up the mess. Raven used her telekinesis to put all the movies away and turn off the systems. Cyborg put the Tower on nighttime lockdown and Robin and Starfire threw away the snacks and drinks.

"'Night guys."

"Sleep tightly."

"Er, sleep tight."

"See ya in the morning."

...

Author's Disclaimer: Only going to say this once. In the highly unlikely event where I, Eden Alice Poe, own the Titans, I will promptly take all these stories down and make them actual eps and things for my own nefarious pleasure, mwahahahaha! *cough* With that said, I, in no way, own the Titans so ya'll can all chill your chili, I'm not making a profit from this, unless you call getting the pleasure of making others happy a profit, then I am making one... Hmm. :/ I own several My Little Ponies, no joke, but I do not own the franchise in any way. I own the dvd's of most movies mentioned, but I do not own their copyrights. I do not own the game "I never" which I took from the show "LOST", another good show with a bad ending. Seriously, where were they? Purgatory? Heaven? Lame. I do not own whatever else that might be copyrighted that I may/may not mention in future chapters. This is the only disclaimer that I'll put in this whole thing, so let's just get all the technicalities out of the way so I won't have to ever do this again, I'm planning on this whole fic to be LONG LONG LONG! :3

Author's Note: Big thanks to my reviewers! Msk8eb, DragonWinglet, numbuh13m, Ninetailsjinx, and Nkcandygirl! Seriously, you guys don't realize how much your reviews mean to me! Thank you so much!

Big round of applause as always to Stormy-chan! Awesomest Beta EVER! She got this back to me so lightning quick, even though I took forever coming up with this stuff, Thanks Stormy! Don't know what I'd do with myself if I didn't have you to check over my work! Also, I'm going to be beta-ing a TT fic *hopefully* for her! Check out her work! She's a really awesome & totally cool person, & I can't wait to work with her on her own TT fic!

(Xtra note: Yes, Rae knows all those languages, she says so herself in Trouble in Tokyo, get your facts right!)

Sorry this took so long & the shortness compared to the first chap, Writers block happened, & life, but most of all PONIES! My friends turned me total Pegasister in the past few weeks. I WENT TO A PONY VIEWING PARTY FOR SEASON 3 FOR PETE'S SAKE! ONLY OTHER GIRL THERE WAS THE ONE WHO INVITED ME! SIX BRONIES, PEOPLE, _**SIX**_! It really is a pretty cool show, though, & Tara Strong- the voice of Raven in TT- is doing the voice of Twilight Sparkle in MLP: Friendship is Magic. If that just might mean something to you, it did for me & now I'm hooked on Ponies! Hence to little nod to TS in this fic, I just couldn't help myself ^w^

Well, that's all. Hopefully I'll get these chaps out sooner when I finally get the Titans up to speed for the first season, but for now, expect some pretty slow progress. Thanks for the continued support! Tell me what you like/didn't like, maybe what you'd like to see happen, preferred pairings, whatever! Just remember to **_REVIEW_**!

Update: Same as last chap, it's been revised. A couple capitalization and grammar/spelling mistakes were fixed. More details added.

Check out my other fics & my forum! It's a great place to keep yourself updated on how my fics may be going, what's going on with me & I already have a place to just talk about some fandoms. If you don't see one that you're into, but you know that I LOVE, bring this to my attention, please, & it shall be fixed asap! Thank you so much & have a very nice day!

TTFN! Buh bye, Alice, out!


	3. Truth, Justice & the Last Slice of Pizza

Chapter 3: The Origins of Truth, Justice... and the Last Slice of Pizza?

The next morning, Beast Boy was the first one up, surprisingly. He never missed his Saturday morning cartoons. Sure, cartoons played all day long, if you found the right channel, but he liked to get up early on Saturdays, it's what generations of kids had been doing for years and the shape-shifter felt he should be no exception. He fixed himself a nice bowl of cereal with plenty of soymilk, and giggled away at the characters' antics.

Turns out, years of living with Gotham's resident hero tends to make you take on some of his habits; Robin had gotten up early as well and was enjoying a nice pop tart and a little cup of coffee. It was the best of being a kid and an adult.

BB was still giggling away when Robin left to ride the elevator down to the lobby. Titans Tower was always going to get a special delivery from Jump's finest newspapers and magazines from then on. It was the least they could do, to thank the heroes for all the work they had done, and were sure to do in the years to come. Plus, there was already an outpouring of fanmail from the city's residents. It was much easier now for fans to send their thanks, how many other Titans Towers were there, after all?

Raven was the next to come into Ops, a book in hand. She quietly set to work, fixing herself some morning earl grey tea on the stovetop.

As the teapot's whine rose up, Star flew in with a, "glorious morning," and soon asked what captivated BB's attention so. Which lead to a very long and winding explanation of cartoons, how they were meant to entertain, where they originated, the many different types Earth had to offer, and so on and so forth. Beast Boy never knew that there could be so much to tell about a topic so seemingly simple. He swore he'd never take television for granted again after he was halfway through explaining most of it to Starfire.

Robin returned with some help from Cyborg- who knew that they already had so many fans?!- and they set to work sorting the fan mail from the news from the junk from the magazines.

Raven poured her tea and used her telekinesis to set the sorted piles into neat stacks. BB was still explaining cartoons and television programs to Star and the Titans were all having a some-what relaxing Saturday. Naturally, something had to go wrong.

"Junk, news, Star, B, Cy, B, mine, news, Star, Rob, Titans, junk, Cy…"

The alarm went off, a big white ALERT on a red background, interrupting BB's show.

"Aw, man!"

Robin leapt into action, typing a little on the closest computer, trying to see what set the alarm off.

"Teen Titans Go!"

He debriefed everyone as Star and BB practiced carrying off their teammates into combat; the long flight off the island was a lot further than the changeling expected, he nearly dropped Cyborg several times.

It was a very simple bank heist. The would-be robbers had tripped a silent alarm by mistake, which alerted JCPD as well as Titans Tower. The Titans were able to dispatch the group quickly without any problems. The whole ordeal was so routine for Jump's residents, normally it wouldn't garner the slightest bit of media attention. However, when the Titans became involved, well, it became a whole other story.

Raven took a turn giving a press statement as the others basked in the glory of foiling yet another would-be tragedy. Robin heard something in the conversation of two nearby officers that made him pause, though.

"It's the third time crook's like this have been after this bank. Think it's connected?"

"If it is, the chief's not going to do much 'bout it. 'Specially now that we've got these Titans to clean up crime in the city. We'll be out of a job soon."

"Naw, they still need folks to babysit all the crooks they lock up, right?"

"Ha, that's true!" they both shared a hearty laugh as they strode off to their cruiser.

"Hey, maybe the Detective's protégé over there'll take the initiative and figure it out!"

"We can only hope." Their conversation turned to a different topic. "Hey, can you believe these new uniforms there putting us in? We look like stinkin' Storm troopers, or..."

'Third time?' Robin knew from experience that coincidences never happened often, if at all. No, if the bank was being targeted, there had to be a reason, and with a reason, someone behind it all to pull the strings.

"Excuse me! Wait! Officers!"

One turned his head lazily in Robin's direction as he and his partner got into the vehicle.

"What do ya need, kid?"

Robin ignored the jab. "I couldn't help but overhear. Is there anyway I could set up an interrogation with these crooks? And the ones who attempted to rob the bank before them?"

"You'll have to fill out the paperwork. What do you think?" he asked his partner, "Is the kid up to it?"

The other officer looked Robin over. He tried to keep his posture straight, exude that confidence Bruce had instilled in him after all these years.

"What, that walking traffic light? The kid's got guts running around in spandex, I'll give him that. But we'll have to see how he handles the cons."

"I'll be at JCPD by 10am, sharp," Robin glared at the officer, who was oblivious, due to the mask. "Maybe I'll bring my team to show them how it's done."

"Or how it's not," the first officer jabbed back as he started the engine and drove off, which a earned a deeper scowl from the boy wonder.

"Everything okay here, Traffic Light?" a bored voice asked.

Robin bristled. "How much did you hear?" he asked as the turned to Raven.

"Not much. I'm guessing we're going on a little field trip tomorrow?"

"If any of you want to. I can pull off an interrogation on my own, but it'd be nice if you all came just the same."

"Tomorrow's Sunday. Everyone is going to want to enjoy it and sleep in." Raven began walking off towards the group, Robin was forced to follow. "We need to head back to the Tower before the paparazzi ask any more questions."

"That bad?"

"Bad would be an understatement."

"Now you're just being hyperbolic."

"You learn such big words by yourself, or did someone need to teach you?"

"Living with the world's greatest detective tends to lead to many battles of wits-"

"You mean Sherlock Holmes? Did you go into those battles as unarmed as you are now?"

Robin used the best, end-all, most thought-out comeback he could think of, which the mystic still managed to top. "That's the best you can come up with?"

"What does that say about you?"

The conversation died as everyone tried to figure the logistics of flying back to the Tower. Beast Boy was still pretty tired- or so he claimed- from having to take care of the would-be crooks, so Raven took a turn giving Cyborg and Robin a lift, this time on a simple disk of dark energy. It barely made it all the way to the tower, despite Raven's 'excellent' control.

Robin invited all of the Titans to the interrogation, which got mixed reactions. Starfire was all for it, not knowing what an 'interrogation' entailed, but wiling to learn something new from the experience. Beast Boy whined, saying there was no way they could even think of getting him up that early. Raven argued that he had gotten up much earlier today. "Saturdays and Sundays are two totally different days!" Cyborg was up for it, but if he wasn't required to go, he was going to spend that time working on some projects. Raven was apathetic, but willing to learn much like Star; the Titans often forgot that Raven was as foreign to this world as Star, at times.

Once they had decided on their course of action for the following day, the group dispersed for their own activities.

Cyborg was busy showing Star how to set up an interstellar transmission to send to her family. "Sending is easy, receiving a transmission is a whole 'nother thing. The system here can only handle so much, especially if it doesn't recognize the source. It's set to protect us from any crazies from contacting us, but if they've got the right equipment, and the reason, it'll be easy for someone with resources to hack in." Here Cyborg paused as he checked the connections. "We've already got emergency contacts like the Batcave- man, I've always wanted to say that!- and the JLA Watchtower. Emergency only though; we're gonna go for exactly zero distress calls to either place. If things really get that desperate, the League would just step in, whether we call for help or not." Cyborg messed with some more settings that didn't make a lot of sense to Star, though she guessed from some of the keys he was pressing, he was setting up more links to the system.

"There!" he finally cried out, satisfied with his work. "Now the T-coms should be linked up to the system! If any of us are out in the city, but someone's here, the computer will pick up on their location and set up a feed if either Titan tries to establish a connection."

"Um, pardon me Cyborg, but why might the connection need to be fed? Is it not an inanimate device used solely for communications?"

"Er, well, a feed basically means a, well, like a broadcast. It's another word for the transmission you'd be sending."

"Ah, I am understanding now."

"Alright, everything should be ready for you to go ahead and try to send it. Good luck! If you have any problems, I'm only a call away!"

He left her to her privacy. BB was waiting for him in the hangar/basement area, where Cyborg was going to set to work, first in the design plans, then in hopefully gathering up the building materials for the first ever Titans Submarine, or T-Sub, whenever it would be completed. BB wanted to help, which mostly meant he was going to use the opportunity to 'share' those jokes he had been saving up.

Robin had left long ago, wanting to test out the training equipment. He practically forced Raven to help him, saying that she needed to test out some that were designed for superhuman standards and the machines needed to be tested before anyone was going to start full-out training with any of it. She half-heartedly agreed.

Star let the computer stand idle, still preparing to set up the interstellar message light-years away to Tamaran. When the connection had finally been established, Star immediately set to greeting her family, in English. She realized her mistake a moment later and switched to her native tongue, so they could understand her when they received her transmission. She told them everything. How she had escaped the Gordanians. How her newfound friends had helped saved her. How she was planning on staying on Earth for quite some time. She went in very explicit detail on all she knew of her new friends. She stayed on the topic of a certain 'Boy of Wonder' a little longer than the rest. She spent at least a full five minutes talking about the wonders of 'soda'. She went on and on about how beautiful Earth was, and all the wonderful and confusing things she had learned so far. She told them how much she missed her family, her k'norfka, Galfore, her pets that had surely passed in her absence, her people, and her home, above all.

When she had finally exhausted every topic she could think of, making double and triple sure she had explained all details, she sent off the transmission and left Ops to allow another fellow Titan a chance to contact home, or anyone else.

Cyborg wasn't interested; he wanted the chance to perfect his designs before he even thought of taking a break. Besides his father and a couple buddies from high school, who was there to talk to anyways?

Beast Boy, however, needed a nice break from all the 'hilarious' jokes he had been telling to Cy. Sure, he hadn't gotten much work done, but it hardly mattered. Cyborg would finish whatever his project was eventually, right?

BB took his turn to send a message and Star took her turn testing out major equipment in the gym, for which Raven was very grateful.

...

The changeling had been sitting there all of ten minutes, just thinking of what he could say to the Doom Patrol. He really wanted to rub his acceptance onto the Titan's team in Steve's face, but no, he also wanted to bide his time for that little victory. He really did miss Rita, though, and he was beginning to wish that the silence between him and Mento didn't have to mean silence between him and the rest of the Doom Patrol.

No, BB would forget about his past, at least his past concerning his former team. He wanted to try a line now that he knew would never be answered. A line that he had been meaning to contact for quite some time now.

"H-hey Mom, Dad. Um, I kinda quit the Doom Patrol recently. Mento's just been..." he paused, "I don't know. But I'm on a new team now. Guess who we're being led by. _Robin! __The_ Boy Wonder! Cool, huh? Yeah, and there's this guy, Cyborg, he's, well, a cyborg. But he's really cool and really good at video games and he's tons of fun to be around. There's these two girls too, Raven and Starfire. They're both really, er, nice, I guess. Raven's not so nice, but I think she's still trying to get used to me, she's really mysterious and quiet a lot. But Star's really cool. She's an alien, though, so we all kinda have to explain stuff to her, she almost killed us when she made something called a _Glorg_. How crazy is that?

"Yeah, but they're all pretty cool. It's a lot better than the Doom Patrol, Robin's way more relaxed than Mento ever was. And Cy's a lot more fun than Robot Man. I think Negative Man and Raven are kinda the same so far, I mean, I never really got to know the guy all that well, but... I kinda want to know Raven, I don't know why, there's something about her...

"I- I guess I just wanted to call and tell you how much I miss you. I- I know I'm not good at remembering to check back with you, but I remember the really big stuff, at least? Right? Ah well, I'll call again whenever... Maybe I'll even visit the old bungalow if it's ever on my way someplace. I don't know, I'll see ya... Love you... Miss you... bye.." BB cut off the transmission. Now that that unpleasantness was out of his way, he'd soon forget all that he had lost and try to move on, yet again. The events of that fateful night, when his parents had been ripped away from him- in an accident BB still believed he could've done something about-, were still burning a hole inside of him. But it was getting easier, he realized, with each time he had 'checked back' with his folks, he had met new people, learned more about his world, about the hero world. Sure, it wasn't normal, but the guy was green for pete's sake! When was his life ever normal to begin with?**  
**

...

Raven thought long and hard about who she really wanted to contact. Interdimensional messages were out of the question. If it took up so much time and effort just to send one to Tamaran- a good few thousand light-years away, mind you- how much longer would it take to even begin experimenting on sending messages across dimensions? No, Raven was planning on contacting the first group, the same group, she had asked for help the first time she even came to this new world.

"Titans Tower to JLA Watchtower."

"Watchtower, this is Zatanna, wh- YOU!" The recognition and anger was plainly evident in Zatanna's eyes, which came as no surprise to Raven. Their little... argument, wasn't something one forgot easily.

"Hello, Zatanna. You're looking well."

"What do you want? The League already turned you away!-"

"Oh, I don't think I'll be bothering your little _Justice_ League anytime soon," Raven spit out the name as if it left a very nasty taste in her mouth. "If anything, I've got myself a new team to help me. You'll regret not accepting me onto the League, sooner or later."

"Please, this world could do without demon spawn like you, no matter how 'good' your 'intentions' may seem. You're all the same. All it takes is _one_ little slip up. Better to take the preemptive strike and not have you ruin JLA's reputation."

"Oh yes, that beautiful reputation, as Earth's primary protectors? We'll just see how that works out when-"

"When we get a call from that precious team of yours? Begging us to come save them because their own teammate turned against them?"

"You'll regret it, Zatanna. You'll regret turning me away, ignoring the problem I'm trying to solve."

"Zatanna, who're talking to?" Flash suddenly cut in, speeding over to see who had miffed his associate in the pursuit of justice.

"Oh, hey, you're that kid that stopped by a few weeks back. Uh, Robin?"

"Raven."

"Eh, both mean birds. Zatanna here getting on your nerves? Ah, don't mind her she can be a little-"

"Wary of demons and the threat they carry when one becomes involved in their destinies." Zatanna interrupted, clearly making her move to end the feed.

Flash, however, wasn't quite done talking. "Like I said, don't mind her." He purposely got in Zatanna's way as she tried to reach over, fumbling for the switch that would end the transmission.

"Hey, I think Batsy said something about his sidekick joining a team. Is that yours? Er..." he looked to the screen below, trying to see where the transmission was coming in. "Titans Tower? Huh. A whole tower. Weren't you here just a few weeks ago? Damn you teens must work fast. Kid keeps talking about leaving, wanting to run solo. I wouldn't blame him, but I'd rather he have some backup. I know he and Bat's old Robin were pretty close. Think you can put in a word for him, Ebony?"

"Raven."

"Eh, both mean dark shades. So?" By this point, Zatanna had given up and left, some other League members were passing by; very few even looked vaguely interested in or aware of the conversation.

"Er, I'll see what I can do."

"Great, great. Well, is there anything else that you needed to call the Watchtower about?"

"I just needed an audience with Zatanna. I'm quite done here. Although-"

"Flash, what's going on here?" a gruff voice asked. It was Robin's former mentor.

"Titans Tower?"

"Yeah, this is Sable-"

"Raven."

"-she was calling to bug Zatanna."

"The one who nearly got killed by her teammate's cooking?"

"Hey, look at that! I think Martian Man-Hunter needs some help with something, be back in a flash." Flash was ignored as he sped out, most likely not to return 'in a flash'.

"H-how did you-"

"You think Robin could've figured something that big without outside help? Don't look so shocked. And don't worry about your little 'secret'. The only League members that are even remotely aware, as far as I know, are myself and Zatanna. The others still simply think that you were an overly ambitious teen. I take it you've told most of your team the truth?"

"Not quite, only Robin knows most of it." Raven didn't know why she was being so open- for her- with the stranger. Perhaps it was because she felt her trust in Robin could include a certain level of trust in the one who trained him as well.

"I wouldn't be keeping too many secrets from them for long. Secrets have a way of destroying a team that one works to build. Trust is key."

"I won't argue with you on that."

"I didn't think one could."

A heavy silence hung in the air, neither wanting to be the first to break it. Luckily they didn't have to, Zatanna had returned.

"_You're_ still here?-"

"Don't worry Zatanna, I won't be bothering your precious League any more. I just wanted to tell Batman that his former sidekick might be contacting him soon, it would be a good idea to be at the Batcave to answer."

"I'll be sure that his call is answered."

"You have a _lovely_ day," Raven said to the both as a goodbye as she shut off the feed.

The whole ordeal was leaving her very psychologically drained, so many mixed emotions in one conversation. And she hadn't even had to endure what the others were feeling as it had dragged on!

Raven rubbed the sides of her head as her emoticlones babbled on and on. Red was trying to stir up trouble, very angered by the way Zatanna had been acting towards Raven from the beginning; Raven quickly shut her up and locked her in that special prison in her head. Grey wanted to cry and mope about the same issue; she was easily ignored. Green wanted to say a few more choice words to the magician; Raven shut her up too. The others were quieter, not as demanding in wanting to be expressed like Red Raven always wanted. No, years of practice suppressing all of her inner demons made them all the easier to control during trying times like this.**  
**

"Time to let Boy Wonder have his turn," Raven sighed as she left Ops.

...

"Master Grayson, it's very nice to see that you are well," Alfred welcomed.

"Hey Alfred, not bad seeing you either. Where's Bru-"

"Dick! Hey, long time, no see!" Batgirl suddenly appeared, ready for a day of crime fighting.

"Nice to see you too, Barb," Robin greeted again, somewhat nervous now. He and Barbara hadn't left off on the best of terms, they had dated off and on for awhile. When Dick finally wanted to break away from his past in Gotham, being only known as a sidekick, Barb couldn't help but feel as if their relationship might've had something to do with it, no matter how many times Dick had reassured her it had nothing to do with them. "But really, I need to know where Bruce is."

"I believe Master Bruce said something about leaving for the Watchtower this morning. Something about tracking criminals, I'm sure."

"Oh," Robin tried not to show how crestfallen he actually felt. He really wanted a chance to reconnect with Batman before his schedule got out of whack, like he was sure it was going to be once he took the case on the bank robbery.

"We've also been busy with this kid, Todd, was it?" Barb looked to Alfred for confirmation.

"Yes, this young man, Jason 'Jay' Todd, had the audacity to try and steal the tires off the Bat-mobile-"

"Could you imagine the look on Bruce's face?" Barb laughed. "Oh man, I would've payed money to see that! But anyways, he gave Jay a lecture about crime in the city and stuff. Made sure he was put in a 'home for troubled youths' and all that. I have the feeling it's not the last we'll see of that guy, though."

"Knowing Bruce, he's probably scrambling to replace me," Robin joked.

"Please," Barb snorted, "He's got me and Alfred, he'll be fine."

"Who'll be fine?" a new voice asked.

"My dad," Barb lied smoothly as the Dark Knight came into view on Robin's screen.

"Hey Bruce," Robin greeted.

"It's nice hearing from you, Dick. How's your team doing?"

"Well, Raven's much better and Star's sworn to learn all she can about Earth so she won't make the same mistake. The guys are okay, we just need a little more time to get to know each other, I guess."

"That's good."

"You find a new Robin to replace me yet?"

"Not yet, if the next one if anything like you and Batgirl, it'll take a good five months to train them."

"As long as they're not too young."

"Because eight is a perfect age to start training to put down hardened criminals," Batgirl mumbled.

"Which reminds me. There's a mercenary, a big-shot to those in the criminal underground, who's rumored to be scouting out a place for a base somewhere on the west coast. He hasn't been heard from in a few months, but he's not big enough for JLA or any other initiates of the League to hunt down and find him. He's a slippery one, and we're still not sure if he's really the same mercenary who's being blamed for at least twelve different political killings, none of them related in M.O. or circumstance the cadaver was involved in prior to the killing."

"This guy have a name?"

"All JLA has in the database is 'Deathstroke', or 'The Terminator'-"

"You sure he's not just trying to rip off Schwarzenegger?"

This merely earned a glare from Batman, as if he was saying 'Let's try and stay a little serious here, Dick.' Batgirl let a light laugh slip.

"Again, with so many different aliases and M.O.'s being applied to one man, it's highly unlikely that he'd settle anywhere for long, but be wary. You never know when villains like him may surprise you. Also, he's got one very identifying feature."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"... His right eye is completely gone. Why? No one's too sure. Again, the database only has so much to share. He usually likes to show off his skill, however. Nearly every sighting of Deathstroke claims that he was wearing some outfit or other that covered the right side of his face, or at least his eye's always covered."

"So he's a showman type?"

"He's not as showy as, say, Joker, or the Penguin. But he definitely seems to like to make a mark on those he leaves living."

"I'll be sure to keep a careful watch," Robin promised, thinking suddenly of the attempted robberies on Jump's First Federal Bank. 'Coincidences never happened often, if at all...'

"Good. If y-" Suddenly the alert- it was like that of an alarm clock for Robin- went off. Batgirl bounced off towards the hanger, most likely to hop on her own Bat-bike. "I'll see ya there, Bruce! If I don't take care of them all myself, first!" she called over her shoulder, disappearing from view.

"We'll keep in touch." Batman strode off without any further goodbye.

"Yeah, see you soon," Robin grumbled. "It was nice talking with all of you guys," he told Alfred.

"Be sure to take care of that team, Master Grayson. And do give us a call if time permits."

"I will. Tell Barb and Bruce I'll miss you all, 'kay Alfred?"

"Of course."

"Thanks. You'll hear from me soon enough. Bye."

"Good bye, Master Grayson." Robin terminated the transmission.

'Time to see what Deathstroke was starting before we came to town,' Robin thought as he headed to his office, where some news clippings from pre-Titans Jump City were stored. If Robin was going to find any connection between the attempted robberies and this new assassin that was sure to show his face, it would be there in those news reports.

Of course, there was always the chance that there was no Deathstroke, that it just so happened the federal bank was a target for so many criminals for a different reason. But a detective had to start somewhere if he was going to find the solution to at least one of his problems.

...

Cyborg had gotten fairly far on his designs, after Beast Boy had left him alone long enough to actually think through the psychics and mechanics of how the submarine would work, and how it could fit each Titan individually and as a whole for when a mission may call for it. For now, he was going to keep the sub connected, but leave it open enough so that he could allow each part to separate if it was a feature that may be needed later.

When Robin had left his teammates in the gym, Raven had tried to take off, but Beast Boy convinced her to stay, saying that he needed someone to spot him on the equipment and that Star was too busy working by herself on others.

Needless to say, by the time they had tried out all the machines, the trio was very tired and very hungry. Luckily, Robin had thought ahead, and ordered pizza.

"Dude, it's vegetarian, right?" BB asked nervously.

"Just plain cheese," Robin reassured him, hoping no one could contradict him and begin explaining to BB that cheese needed milk, which of course, came from cows. "No surprise toppings, we'll get something fancier if we go out for a pizza next time."

"Like the place Star nearly demolished after she crash landed," Cyborg joked, giving Star a little nudge as he reached for a couple slices.

Star blushed as she took a few for herself, "I did not realize that your places for food consumption are so similar in appearance to normal residences or business districts."

"You'll recognize the differences when you've been here long enough," Raven reassured her, grabbing her own slice.

Star gasped as she took her first bite of a pizza. "Simply magnificent! The closest that I have tasted of this was smashed Blortha Worms with bits of Zorka-"

"Uh, yeah, this is different," Robin said quickly. Anything involving worms in food, couldn't be good, no matter how much it may taste like pizza. And the boy wonder really didn't want the image in his head.

Pizza was eaten, by some more than others. Soda was drank. Chips passed along the table or eaten straight from the bag. Stories were swapped.

As fate would have it, all reached for the last slice of pizza, at the same time. Not for the first, and certainly not for the last time, will this happen for each Titan.

"Hey man, I reached for it first," Cyborg claimed.

"No, I did!" BB yelled.

"I think Star had her eyes on the pizza," Robin reasoned.

"But my eyes were inside of my head this whole time," Star stated.

"I've only had two slices so far," Raven said quietly.

"You want to fight me for it, Tin Man?" BB yelled.

"Oh you're so dead you little grass stain!" Cy yelled back, getting his sonic canon ready to start the battle... for the last slice of pizza.

"Eat THIS!" he yelled, sending a little shock to the changeling, who morphed into a fly to escape.

While her teammates were distracted by the display, Raven brought the slice closer to her end, encased in her black aura. Then swiped the box from the table and ran, a small smile on her face.

"Hey! Maybe I wanted that!" Robin yelled, running after her.

Raven started flying, faster and faster, until she ran right into Starfire on one of the corners.

"Please friend? Might we possibly share the last slice of the wondrous pizza?"

Raven shook her head. "Sorry Star, not going to happen." She phased right through the wall, back into Ops. Cyborg and Beast Boy just leaving to join the chase as she came in.

"Well that was convenient." She sat down at the table with box in hand, ready to enjoy her prize.

"I knew it!" the Boy Wonder yelled as he caught the empath about to chow down on his slice. He brought out a bird-a-rang. "We can do this the easy way or-"

Raven lifted a hand and took Robin's toy away from him. "Or the easy way," she finished, finally taking that bite before any other Titans showed up.

"Hey, I heard them down here!" Cyborg yelled from one of the side entrances. He emerged seconds later, Star coming in from the opposite, and BB coming in with the mechanical doors _whooshing_ after him.

"Ah man! Raven already got to it!" he complained.

"Pay no mind that all of you were eating more than your fair share, or that poor Raven only got two slices, or that she was nearly accidentally killed a few days ago," Raven said, slipping into third person.

"Hmm, so you're a drama queen? You learn something new everyday," Robin jabbed.

"I'm merely presenting facts. I would hardly call that dramatic, Traffic Light," Raven jabbed back.

"Alright, no more mean talk, before it gets out of hand. How 'bout a little desert for the rest of us while ice princess finishes her slice?" Cyborg reasoned, which earned a glare from Raven and a cheer from BB.

Cy opened up a cupboard, filled to the brim with snacks and candy. "Here, Star, these are better without the wrappers," he joked, quoting the first time BB had talked directly to her. She blushed and accepted some of the candies, being sure to take them apart and _then_ consume.

"Well, maybe a little," Robin broke down, "I guess I could use a little sugar before we call it a night."

"Yeah, Cy, pass me a couple Hersheys! I wanna get some chocolate in me before I can kick your butt on Gamestation!"

Cyborg threw the shapeshifter the chocolate, grabbing a controller as he settled on the sofa. "We'll see who'll own who." They quickly set to work, adding in a player for Robin when he had finished his last bites of candy.

Raven resumed reading her book from earlier, and Star sat by in fascination of the, "games of video." Having learned so much that morning of cartoons, and of games and such earlier, Starfire felt she was nearly ready to implement this knowledge herself, yet still a ways off from being totally ready to start trying her hand at these things.

It was a few hours before Robin realized he was going to have to head in early for his interrogations tomorrow. He advised Raven and Star that they needed to get rest too, if they were still planning on joining him. BB and Cy stayed in Ops longer, still trying to prove who was best at Gamestation. Games were lost and won, and both went to bed that night feeling as though they bested their opponent, but knowing that more virtual battles would be needed to decide who was truly the best player.

None knew of the surprise that awaited them in the events of the weeks to follow, all starting with the interrogation Robin and the girls would be taking part in...

...

Author's Note: Happy MLK Jr. Day! Good thing- there's no school. Bad- there's some hw there to ruin it. XP Ah well, I figured I had this typed up, my beta finally sent it back over, why not get a little updating done, right?

Thanks as always to Stormy! I get that life gets busy, best wishes that it'll be much more calm for you soon.

Thanks to the reviewers; EmailGoose, MickChick125, DragonWinglet, and Nkcandygirl! Means a lot that you've stuck with the story and I hope you'll be here to stay, sorry for the long wait.

Explanations: There was a little confusion on why BB would be contacting his parents when they are deceased. Well, I figured it's like visiting their graves, but BB doesn't want to draw suspicion by making the trek to Africa, so a quick message would do the trick until he could find the time to visit like he should. But he's a hero, he's allowed certain liberties when it comes to visiting one's dead parents, right?  
Uh, for Raven's emoticlones... I've seen too many people call them by their alleged emotions that they represent & some are then angered by it. Personally, I don't see Grey as being just Timid, I also see her as Regret, Sadness- borderline Depression, even- and Mopey. In general, a Negative Nelly, if you will. So, to make things a gazillion times simpler, I'm going to call them by their colors and let the reader guess which emotion I aimed for. Pretty much what the animators & writers did in the first place.

Well, that's it. I've changed some minor things in the past chapters, just more details. I'm thinking of trying a new writing style over the course of the next few chaps, but don't worry, it'll be for the best if I go through with it.

Tell me what you think, as always. I love hearing back from my readers. See ya all next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4: This Chapter is Pointless

Chapter 4: This Chapter is Pointless...

Pure unfiltered sunlight streamed through Beast Boy's room. He had been living in this confined space for less than a week, and already, it was starting to fill with clutter. Some was just bits of food and things he kept telling himself he'll throw away eventually. The rest were things he had so carefully put in his drawers, then brought out when he felt he needed that particular item, only to end up throwing it into a corner, or start a new pile of _stuff_.

But it wasn't a very messy room, no. It was more cozy, comfy, if a bit cluttered. But BB felt at ease in his room, which was really all that any teen ever needed out of their personal domain.

The changeling was just crawling out of his bunk bed, rolling and falling off the top, but landing on his feet in the form of a kitten. (Cats never failed to land on their feet, after all.) He then proceeded to sun himself and stretch out as cats tend to do. Cats were the best at stretching themselves, Beast Boy had discovered over the years, and he loved to start his afternoons feeling limber and ready to face the rest of the day.

After he was through with his routine, he took a quick glance at the clock on his nightstand. "Sweet! Time for lunch!" He rushed to Ops, ready to make himself a not-ham sandwich with all the fixings. He took special care in finding everything he wanted for the perfect not-ham sandwich, even taking a full two minutes deciding which soda he was to drink with it. Suddenly, as he was about to chow down, the television received a transmission from a T-com.

"Raven to Titans Tower." BB dropped his sandwich in surprise.

"Raven, hey, what's goin' on?"

"Cinderblock escaped from prison, that's what. Right in the middle of Robin's interrogation. Starfire and I are flying ahead and keeping tabs on him. Robin wants you and Cyborg to meet him at these coordinates to try and cut him off." A map of Jump City was brought on screen, taking up most of the area. The meeting point blinked bright yellow on the blue backdrop.

"Right, we'll be there." BB ran off to find Cyborg as Raven nodded and terminated the transmission. He brought his own T-com out to contact his mechanical friend.

"Beast Boy to Cyborg! Trouble!"

...

"It's really simple," Robin reasoned. "Either you tell me who you were working for, as much intel as you can give, or I can have the courts double, maybe even triple your sentence. And before you start thinking that that may be a weak threat, I'll remind you what we have on your record." Robin held up a manila folder in front of the criminal and spoke sardonically, "Even cons have a moral code, what was it? 'Don't mess with kids'?"

The man paled in his freshly pressed orange jumpsuit as he recalled the contents of his file.

"Alright, alright! You got me! There's a few big shots that've moved here since you kids moved to Jump. Guy with one eye- he goes by some different names, I can't ever keep up when the gang's talkin' bout him!- but he's been paying well to have people do little odds and ends for him-"

"What types of 'odds and ends'?" Robin yelled in his face, grabbing the con by the collar.

"I don't know! Small time crime! Petty theft! A few real big jobs down by the docks, but that was way before you kids showed up here! Ough!" he grunted as Robin shoved him back in his seat.

"Any specifics?"

"I don't know- there was a lot of stolen tech, some stuff was just basic building materials for some skyscrapers that were gonna be built- but he got some guys to get to 'em first -not guys I know personally!- just heard 'bout it, y'know, through the grapevine."

Robin turned to leave. "That'll be enough... For now." He slammed the door on the con, making the already distraught man jump in his seat.

"Please Robin, after 'interrogating' four other of the criminals, you have not uncovered any new information. What is the meaning of this?" Starfire asked.

"They all tell the same story... That's the point, isn't it? You're checking their intel against each other to see if any could be lying to you," Raven realized.

"And if every story is the same, either they're all lying, or they're all telling me the truth," Robin confirmed.

"A good, but very basic technique," Commissioner Baker commented, "Gordon was right when he said you'd be subtler than your mentor."

"Batman and I had different ideas on how to get criminals to talk," Robin said simply.

"Simple and effective. Very straightforward. Keep it up, and we might call on you kids more often," the commissioner remarked.

"Mind if me or Starfire try a hand at it?" Raven asked.

Before either the commissioner or Robin could answer, all the Titans T-Coms beeped and an officer rushed in.

"Oh, good, they're here! Sir, Cinderblock's escaped and he's running lose near the tech district! Heading towards the north side!"

"We'll handle this! Raven, Starfire, I want you to fly up and get a visual on him. Tell Beast Boy and Cyborg to meet up with me. We'll corner him and take him down."

"We're gonna need more of a plan than that, Wonder Boy."

"I'll make it up as we go, just make sure that BB and Cy are on their way!" Robin yelled over the din of the police department scrambling to discover what went wrong and rectify it.

...

"Do you know why I moved to Jump, Wintergreen?"

The soldier-turned-butler knew better than to answer his employer's rhetorical question. He was in a mood again. A brooding mood. And the only known cure was that rare one-on-one, or more like one-sided, monologue.

"It's a simple plan, really. So many prominent League members have taken young heroes under their wing. And they spread themselves so thin. They focus on their work in the big cities, the global issues. They no longer have the time to spare on petty thievery, which is very thing that got many of them started as 'crime fighters', you know. Ah, but now these young heroes that they had taken care of, they're growing up. They want the freedom to prove they can step out of their teacher's shadows. It was only a matter of time that one of them would come to a smaller city like this one and give me an opportunity to break them. After all, if I could break a hero that had been _brought up_ to 'do good' and 'fight evil', can you imagine how broken that would make their teachers look? And how the League would be perceived then?"

"An excellent plan, sir."

"You know damn well it is. But that's only what I've planned for the results to be. Now the fun truly begins as I must plan ways to entrap the mind I plan to remold. It's requiring much more cunning and flexibility on my part than I initially thought, but the rewards shall be more than enough to make up for it."

"I'm just happy to see you taking charge, sir."

"Indeed. Though I will miss working for others. You know how I love to partake in the action myself, but it was high time I took a break from being a mercenary. It's what drove Adeline from me, what killed Grant. God knows where Joseph is or how he's turned out."

"It's never too late to start another search, sir."

"No, I have the feeling that if he wanted to be found, he'd be here. There's no doubt in my mind that he's still alive, but I have no desire to search for him any longer. He's just another lost son."

"However you wish, sir. But back to the news I was to bring you-"

"Get on with it, Wintergreen."

"Cinderblock has been freed from his cell and is currently leading three of the Teen Titans on a chase. The other two are believed to join presently."

"Perfect... if I had wanted a fight to ensue at this time. Be sure that Cinderblock makes it out of that fight. I'm going to settle a score. It would appear that Robin's got a jump start on my plans."

"You mean the thieves that were supposed to rob that bank, sir?"

"Yes, and I may stop by Chang's. Don't wait up, just be sure that Cinderblock is here when I get back." With that, the new criminal mastermind turned away from his butler and associate in crime, headed off on some errands he wanted to handle personally.

...

Cyborg had stayed at the Tower- which Robin said he was fine with. He had come as soon as Beast Boy had told him he was needed- just as Robin ordered. He was there and ready to fight which should have been exactly what Robin needed from him.

Cyborg understood that Robin wanted to 'play leader' after taking orders from Batman for so long, but the spiky-headed boy wonder was still at least a full head shorter than the half-metal teen. And a year younger too! So yes, Cyborg did hold a little contempt for his leader, but Robin was really taking himself way too seriously. A battle plan? Cy played on a lot of teams in high school, he was an all-star athlete- and his grades weren't too shabby, either. He knew there had to be some free-wheeling involved in any team plan in order for it to succeed. Not everything could be planned to the T, because your opponent could have a trick up his sleeve that you didn't take into account.

Like how Cinderblock had someone looking out for him.

It seemed the behemoth was there one minute, Starfire and Raven floating not too far, trying to block his route down the street while civilians ran opposite of the action. Then, poof! Gone. There had been a smoke screen and some general confusion, but it had that same effect.

Robin had tried throwing a flash disk to disorient the monster while the smoke still hadn't cleared and Cyborg tried shooting at the same time. While both completely missed the target, it did have a nice sonic-boom effect on the building nearby. When the debris from both areas cleared, the Titans got an eyeful of just how much collateral damage had been done.

"I told you that I was making a move!" Robin yelled.

"Yeah, when you had a clear shot! You know none of us could've landed a hit on him with all that smoke!" Cyborg defended.

"Then why'd _you_ fire?" Robin demanded.

"Instinct man!" Robin was really starting to get in Cy's face, the tension between the two was unmistakable.

"Then maybe-"

"Will you both stop it already!" They turned to look at Raven.

"If you want to settle your pointless argument, do it someplace less public. Losing to Cinderblock will look bad enough, arguing about it after will look completely unprofessional."

Robin backed up as Raven made her point, but as soon as she had finished Cy got in his face again. "You. Me. Video games at the Tower. Now."

Robin grinned back. 'Now _that's_ the way to settle things!' he thought, but merely said, "You're on."

They immediately made it a race to the shore, a good four blocks away from where they were now. Beast Boy followed leisurely behind, but Raven started walking nearly opposite, making Starfire pause.

"Friend, you do not wish to come home to the Tower with us?" Raven stopped her walk down the street.

"No, you can go ahead without me. I just want to get out of the Tower for a bit. If you need me," she held up her T-com, "I'm only a call away."

"Very well, friend." With that, Star flew to the shore, where a very miffed boy wonder stood, alone.

"C'mon Star! Cyborg's already got a lead on me with Beast Boy helping him out! If we hurry, we can still make it to the Tower before him!"

"I will be most delighted to help you anyway I can, Robin!" star said eagerly as she scooped him up and flew him back to their home base.

As soon as they touched down on the roof, Robin took a running start, calling back a quick "Thanks!" and rushing to Ops. Just in time, too. Cyborg nearly started up the Gamestation without him

"So what'll it be? Air Invaders 2000, or Space Racers: Timed Defeats?" Cy asked.

"Oh! Oh! You guys should play Mega Monkeys 2! It's, like, brand new! C'mon!" Beast Boy begged. Both of the older heroes ignored his pleas, though.

"Air Invaders is more of an individual arcade game, you just try to top the other players high scores. Space Racers is more one on one, we'll be able to settle this easier with that one," Robin reasoned.

"I don't know man, I've gotten my hands on quite a few games like this one. Don't you think you may be at a disadvantage, what with my tech savvy? I don't think you stand a chance," Cyborg boasted, trying to psyche out the boy wonder.

"Don't you think you're underestimating me?" Robin asked.

"We'll just see about this," Cy answered finally as he place the new game into the console and set it up for the two to start, 'settling their dispute'.

Star had arrived quietly behind Robin earlier and was trying her hand at preparing the snacks as she had remembered Cyborg making before. Beast Boy, who was upset by how easily he had been ignored, wandered over to the kitchen to give his foreign friend a hand.

They soon had various brands of chips and salsa strewn around the coffee table, several different sodas and other drinks, and to top it all off, some left over pizza that had been found hidden away in the back of the refrigerator. Thanks to Cyborg's quick thinking, he had stuffed a box in the fridge for later. Sure it was day old pizza, but it was still pizza.

"So, Star," BB stumbled as he tried to make small talk, "Um, what do you think, of Earth and stuff? It must be kinda weird, being on a whole 'nother planet and all."

"Earth is certainly a strange place, but not so strange as some other worlds I have visited."

"Other worlds? You've been to other planets? I thought-"

Star waved her hand trying to dismiss his train of thought, "Oh, most planets I barely recall. There are so many that I still have not had the pleasure of knowing. And many I believe I know too much of. Although, out of all the worlds I have visited, Earth is one of the smaller ones, but definitely the most diverse. There is so much to know just in one region! And I have been here less than three norfplorks!"

"Nerf-what?"

"Oh, pardon me, friend. A norfplork is-"

"AW YEAH, MAN! IN THE LEAD!" Cyborg yelled, interrupting Starfire.

"NO FAIR, I TOTALLY HAD YOU!"

"YOU THINK YOU HAD ME, BUT YA DIDN'T!"

"OH YEAH? TAKE THIS!"

Both Beast Boy and Starfire found their attention diverted to the screen, where Robin was making his move to pass up Cyborg in their race. It was quite enthralling, watching the two react so quickly to the other as they raced their virtual spaceships along the computer generated track. It was nearly an hour before Beast Boy remembered that one Titan was missing.

"Hey, where's Raven?"

...

It took a few minutes of walking, but Raven finally found it. The Dark Rose Café.

If the name itself wasn't promising enough, the look of it sealed the deal. It looked fairly gloomy on the outside, a purple awning hung above the ornate window, which was tinted to reflect the pedestrians walking briskly past the little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. The door chimed open, letting out the soft scent of tea and incense as a broody teen silently stalked out with a few friends following quietly behind.

'Yep, definitely the place for a stereotypical goth to be hanging around,' Raven thought as she crossed the street and entered the café. 'And the type of place I need to be around. A repressed atmosphere is a lot easier on my psyche than the type at the Tower offers.'

The door chimed again as Raven entered, lavender incense spilled out onto the street before the door shut softly behind her.

All heads turned to the dark Titan.

There was a teen with a ghost character on his shirt sitting on the stage. His face was mostly concealed by his dark hair and he seemed very bored. Some other depressed looking teens were sitting around, some in booths near the blacked-out windows, or at the tables near the stage. One had been chatting quietly with the bartender at the counter, though he paused as soon as the Titan had entered the café.

It wasn't a very crowded place, but then again, there wasn't much of a crowd.

"Make any more of a fuss and your neighbors will have to file a complaint," Raven muttered as she made her way to the counter. "I'll take an earl grey tea, please," she asked the bartender, then turned to the group sitting by the stage, who were still staring at her.

"Well, go on," she nodded to the teen at the mic. His lips twitched as if he were to smile, then the bored façade was back as he cleared in throat and went on with his poetry reciting.

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary..." He smirked.

Raven rolled her eyes as she turned away and sat at the bar. 'Could you get any more cliché?' she silently asked as the bartender handed her a steaming cup of tea. As she was about to take out some money to pay for it, the bartender shook his head. "Titans' Special. Free of charge for those who serve the city," he winked.

"Thank you," Raven said, a bit shocked. After all, it wasn't like they had been 'serving the city' all that long. Sure, they'd done a few things, but if it wasn't for Wayne Enterprises, they probably wouldn't be able to afford fighting crime or saving lives the way they did. Who knew being a superhero required so much extra cash?

As Raven took careful sips of her drink, the teen at the mic finished his poetry as his audience gave the obligatory snaps of approval. He sauntered over to the bar right up to where Raven was sitting, though she choose to carefully ignore his trek.

"So, there any specific reason you choose this hole-in-the-wall for a tea break?" he asked casually.

"Because I needed just that. A break."

He nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. Those other Titans don't seem like the kind of people you'd hang around. Come to think of it, it doesn't seem like any of you would be hanging around each other at all. You're all probably the weirdest group of superheroes anyone's ever seen, but..."

Raven looked up from her cup as the goth shifted his gaze away and his hair ran into face, shielding his eyes from her. "But?"

"But... you make it work," he turned towards her again, "Even if it all might be pretty meaningless."

Raven almost dared to smile. She had to admit, this mysterious goth boy was really growing on her. She thought over her first impression of him as he held out his hand for her to shake.

"I'm Xavier, by the way. Most know me by it, but few call me it. Typically, the name 'Goth Boy' seems to be the favorite for fans and bullies alike. It doesn't much matter, seeing as how I'm such an easily forgettable character, if you will."

"Goth! You gonna just sit there and chat or are you gonna order something? You know the rule! You sit, you drink," the bartender reprimanded.

"Right," Goth Boy paused as he thought it over, "I'll have what the Titan's having."

"Gee, I'm flattered that you bothered to remember my team affiliation. Thanks. It means so much," Raven said sardonically.

"Any time," the goth dead-panned back. "Why bother with names? It's just another way that we try to label each other, sort our own kind into categories and groups. They only really serve to tear the human race apart by bringing only select people together. Just another way to make chaos from ostensible organization."

"Very well-put. Though, the naming of one's children probably isn't as pointless as, say-" Before Raven was able to make her case, her T-com rang.

"Excuse me a moment," she flipped the communicator open to see her teammates, some with worried faces. "What is it, guys? Got a lead on Cinderblock?"

"Um, no," Robin admitted, his face turning slightly pink as he remembered his new-found duty to the city. "Er, we were just getting a little worried. We haven't heard from you in awhile and you didn't exactly give Starfire any specifics about where you were-"

"Dude! Seriously! What if we needed you over here? Like, to help us break the tie on who's better at Gamestation! Or-" Beast Boy was silenced as he got several glares from his teammates.

"Because that qualifies as a life-or-death emergency," Raven reasoned, rolling her eyes.

"C'mon, Rae," Cyborg pleaded, "This is, like, team bonding time. We're gonna be at each other's throats twenty-four-seven, you can't shake us that easily and you might as well get used to being around us. Now why don't you come home to the Tower and help us break this tie?"

Raven sighed, "Whatever."

"Well alright!" Cy cheered as Starfire gave a small ovation and Beast Boy and Robin grinned. "We'll see you soon then," Robin said as he terminated the transmission.

"Gotta go," Raven said to Goth Boy, "But I guess there's really no need for me to say that, is there?"

"If you want to talk futility and pointlessness, you can always come here. I'm sure that we'll be seeing you at the Dark Rose often enough," Goth Boy said as he was finally handed his earl grey.

"Any other places we might be able to meet up at? Chat?" Raven asked, trying to be a bit sly.

Goth Boy took a careful sip of his tea. "... We'll see. There are plenty of hangouts to be found in a city like this."

Raven grinned as she exited the café and called back over her shoulder, "Good to know."

...

"As always, it's positively lovely meeting with you, Mr. Slade. But do tell me," Professor Chang paused, very cautious, "What brings you to my humble observatory this time? Hmm?"

Slade looked around, quite bored and slightly disgusted at the state of disarray Chang had allowed his observatory to fall into. As far as black market meetings went, this was one of the less classy places he was constantly forced to go to. This was mostly due to the fact that Chang liked to operate within his home territory and away from the public eye. It served as an excellent area for him to show off his latest inventions and commissions for others; it was built to impress. However, due to the recent lack of criminal activity following Slade's arrival in Jump City, the observatory had little to display.

After all, first having to compete with a first-class assassin on the black market, then having to stay under the radar as the Teen Titans moved into town... It was too much for most organized criminals to handle, even the most well-established ones.

So the easy, smart answer? Pick up and hightail it out of Jump.

Of course, some gangs and the mafia had yet to leave so soon, though they had quieted their activity since the arrival of the Teen Titans. It didn't make sense to allow a direct confrontation so soon with the teens, after all. Better to keep the underground operations just as they had always been: underground. For now, this needed to be taken literally, as the corrupt public dealings in Jump that had usually been conducted, above ground and in broad daylight, were no longer safe.

"I need a few things from you, Chang," Slade finally replied.

"Of course," Chang responded eagerly, "Weapons, materials, blueprints? I'm a tad short-handed at the moment, so anything that may need to be stolen may take time, or any of my original designs might take a few extra days, even weeks, to be made."

"Trust me, I'm in no rush. But I do expect only the finest quality products from you," his voice took on that dangerous tone again. A tone that made Chang cringe. A tone that frightened him. It was almost threatening without being overtly so, saying that if one were to fail this mysterious and frightening man, they likely were not to see the light of day. At least, not without some cost to their well-being.

"Naturally," Chang promised, clearing his throat in nervousness. He made his way over to a nook as Slade followed closely behind. It was a small office where Chang usually conducted his business that was normally very cluttered. Now, the desk he sat at was littered with a few original designs and memos. He waited for Slade to take a seat before continuing.

"But, what might be required of me, Mr. Slade? I can't go off cryptic hints forever, you know. There's designs to discuss, payment, the difference between your expectations and the results I am able to provide."

"I never ask for anything that I don't think will be met, I assure you," Slade said. "What I need from you, are very simple robot commandoes, with enough intelligence to perform the missions I will send them out for and to react on their own with little influence on my part."

Chang took his seat, mulling it over. "Hmm, that will take time-"

"How long?" Slade calmly demanded.

"Erm, maybe three weeks to perfect their designs and remove all possible bugs from their systems and preliminary computer chips, then at least two weeks more to gather and order all the parts- the market isn't what it used to be, you know- How many commandoes are we talking, here? That's of significant importance that we have a number in mind, buying in bulk- even on the black market- always better serves your wallet, after all."

"I'll answer your question with one of my own: How many do you think it would take to keep the Teen Titans at bay?"

"Oh... I see." Chang grimaced as he brought out his sketchbook to start the designing process. "Let's see, keep basic anatomy in check... Enhanced strength and resistance to heavy damage... Concealed tech and room for updates and improvements..." Chang's mumbling and sketching was grating on Slade's nerves, but once the mad genius seemed to be nearly finished, he subtly and purposefully cleared his throat.

"Now that I think about it, I'm also going to need to ask where one can acquire adequate amounts of Xenothium. There's a few experiments I'm planning on running."

Chang refused to look up, continuing his sketching at the same feverish pace.

"I know a supplier that's always on time with his deliveries. There's also supposedly a tech company on the south side of Jump that keeps their own generous supply. Though, you'd have to drive a hard bargain for them to even considering selling," Chang smirked, "Then again, you have your ways, don't you, Mr. Slade?"

Before he could respond, Chang put down his pencil and looked over his nearly finished sketch of the commandoes.

"Here's some basics I've got for you," Chang said as he turned the sketchbook around for Slade to observe.

"Do you take cash or check?" he asked.

Chang grinned.

...

"So... where were you anyways?" Beast Boy asked Raven before the door even had time to close behind her. For all his effort, he failed miserably at trying to be sly.

"Oh, do tell, friend! It did not seem to be... a very well lit area," Starfire added.

Raven walked past them into the kitchen and began rummaging through the refrigerator. "Just.. out."

Robin hit a button on his controller to pause the game and turned around to face the group in the kitchen. "Out? Raven, there's nowhere you could have gone that you can't tell us about; that's what friends are for."

She finally emerged from the fridge, an apple in hand. She gave it a light toss before twisting the stem off. "Went looking for a bookstore for a little while," she shrugged. "Found a nice little café. There's a few shops I thought about going into."

"So..." Cyborg began as Raven took a bite of her apple. "You just.. took a walk?" She nodded in response.

While Cyborg was distracted, Robin took the opportunity to restart the game and gain an advantage.

"Alright! Back in the lead!" he cheered.

"What the- Hey man, no fair! I was talkin' to Raven!" Cyborg complained. His fingers were ablaze as he tried to catch up to Robin's racer.

"Snooze, you lose!" Robin grinned, adding boosters to his racer to widen the rapidly shrinking gap between him and Cyborg's racer.

"So, this is what I simply couldn't miss out on?" Raven asked Starfire.

"Oh yes, do join us, friend! There is much of the fun to be had. Beast Boy seems to enjoy cheering for whomever is 'in the lead', while I provide my own encouragement for the other! And after each race, we take breaks and partake in the consumption of snacks!"

"Yeah, and when they're all done, I'll be playing the winner!" Beast Boy smiled.

"You mean, losing to the winner," Cyborg corrected as he caught up to Robin, with only seconds to spare. Their racers were neck and neck as they began the last lap.

BB stuck his tongue out at him then turned to Raven. "So, who're you pulling for?"

Raven took a look at her two teammates, then at the screen that was the entire focus of their attention. She got a faraway look in her eyes, and then they began to glow a very faint white.

"Cyborg."

Just as she said this, Cyborg used a booster he had been saving for the very end of the race and rocketed ahead of Robin's racer with little time left.

"BOO-YAH!"

"NO!"

"You're the man, Cy!"

"Victory!"

Robin whipped around, a glare on his face. "How did you know? You could've given me some warning!"

"It was a last ditch decision on his part, I was only able to guess correctly mere seconds before Cyborg even knew he was going to be passing you," Raven said calmly as she took another bite. "Besides, using my precognitive abilities would technically be cheating, on your part at least. And it makes for a much more interesting race if the players don't know what the other gamer will pull."

"Does that mean you will stay to watch more of the racing games between friends Robin and Cyborg?" Starfire asked hopefully.

Raven shrugged, "It's not like I have much else to do."

"Glorious!" Starfire squealed.

"Sweet!" BB chuckled.

"Awesome, you can watch me whup Robin's butt some more!" Cyborg laughed.

Robin fumed and started up the game again, much to Beast Boy's dismay.

"Dude, that is _so_ unfair..."

"That depends on what your basis for comparison is," Raven interjected one last time before summoning a book to read while 'watching' the race.

...

As time went on, Beast Boy started losing hope that he'd get even a single game in.

It was getting very late, Raven and Starfire had lost interest and gone to their respective rooms, and Robin was quickly losing interest as he began losing more games.

After gaining the advantage yet again, but losing for the third time in a row, he opted for a dignified rage quit.

"You know," he yawned, "We've got our first group training exercise tomorrow, and I'm planning on getting up a bit early, you two can keep playing if you want.

"Finally!" Beast Boy cheered.

"Oh no, you don't! You know I won, fair and square! And you know I'm just gonna have to kick your little butt tomorrow, too!" Cyborg said.

"Yeah, yeah," Robin tried to shrug him off, "I'll see you two in the morning, then."

"Dude, we totally have to play Mega-Monkeys-"

"Sorry, little green bean, I'm all gamed out," Cyborg yawned, "Maybe tomorrow we'll get in a game."

"B- b- but-"

"See ya, little dude," Cyborg patted BB's head as he made his way out of Ops.

When Beast Boy was completely alone, he sighed and started shutting down the Gamestation. There was no point to letting it stay on all night and wearing down it's warranty. He was just really bummed out that he hadn't gotten even a single game in.

...

The next morning, the team woke up to the smell of toast burning. And as each member made his or her way to Ops, they were greeted by the sight of Robin in the kitchen, trying to make several bowls of cereal, plates of toast with bagels and jam ready to be spread, and a few lopsided pancakes with plenty of syrup.

"'Morning guys!" Robin said cheerfully, "Hope you're hungry, cause we've got a big day of training ahead of us."

Raven tentatively picked up one of the cereal boxes. "Lucky Cap'n Rabbit King Nuggets?"

"For the Irish seafaring nobleman in you!" Beast Boy quoted, ripping the box from her and grabbing a carton of soy milk.

As he downed the cereal, the others gathered around the counter and started fixing their own bowls of cereal and plates of food.

"So Robin, what do you have planned for us, anyways?" Cyborg asked, taking a bite of the burnt toast.

Robin, who had his mouth full, shook his head and smirked. "Surprise. You'll see."

"Well that isn't vague," Raven said.

"I am sure that when the time comes, we will know what Robin plans for our team practice," Starfire said as she picked up a spoon and began cutting her pancakes with it.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll be whopping your butt at it," Cyborg bragged.

"You'll just have to wait, Cy," Robin smirked again, "Practice starts soon. I'll see all of you in the gym." Robin got up and put his dishes in the sink, not bothering to rinse them, and rushed off to the elevator. "C'mon Titans!"

...

Author's notes: Yay! I'm kinda back! XD So first, big thank you to the reviewers: NavyBlurd, MickChick125, DragonWinglet, eld mcm, cruelistnightmare, and EmailGoose! Thank you, guys, for the support & I hope that after the hiatus, this chap is up to par!  
Big thanks to Stormy-san, for taking the time to beta this for me! Seriously, I probably wouldn't be able to catch half of the mistakes I make in a fic this long XD

**Some notes about this chap: the title is a play off the 'This party is pointless' line from 'Sisters'. This chap is far from being pointless, I promise.  
Second note: Goth Boy means his poetry fans, not you guys XD NO 4TH WALL BREAKING ON MY WATCH!  
'Nother note: The cereal line should go without saying, but it's a little product from Powerpuff Girls XD Loved that show & this won't be the last allusion, trust me.  
Final note: Rae's line about fairness & comparison is based off something a certain sparkly supernatural being said once in a really old movie. Props to you if you can guess which movie & the speaker XD Okay, naw, I'll give you... a little sneak peak into what happens before/after an episode of your choice. Yeah, there's a nice little prize. Just tell me who you think it is/what the movie is in a review & I'll PM you that sneak peak. How about dem apples? :3 Of course, feedback about the fic itself is much more appreciated, but maybe this'll give you non-reviewers some incentive. Seriously, you guys fav & follow but don't tell me what you really think? I crave your opinion! Give me the cruel truth! XD

Summer's been great so far, at least as a break XD Hopefully, with most of the series already mapped out, I'll be able to get in chaps a lot faster for you guys (but no promises). It totally depends. I've got a million ideas (some TItans related, some not) buzzing around in my skull as I'm sure many others do too.

As always, thanks for reading, I hope that you've enjoyed this & that you'll be back for more! :D Happy reading!


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